Gender Bender
by Nyte Kat
Summary: An accident turns Razor into a she-kat... permanently. What's a kat to do when his best friend starts finding him attractive? I made this all one story now to make things simpler. Chapter eight up. With that, I put this baby to bed. It's done, my friends.
1. Chapter 1

_**Author's warning: Adult themes. Adult themes. And adult themes. Actually, most of the adult stuff is toward the end. I apologize for the suck-ass action sequences. I really am more of a fan of drama. I'm better at drama. Anywho... happy reading.**_

_**Nyte Kat.**_

"You have to be careful," Dr. N. Zyme warned the Swat Kats before they ran in after viper. "We've been doing extensive research on molecular and genetic alterations. Some of our experiments are highly unstable."

"We'll try not to wreck your lab, Doc." T-Bone said as he ran after Razor down the corridor.

"It's not the lab I'm worried about," Dr. Zyme said to the retreating vigilantes.

* * *

"Alright, snake breath," Razor skidded to a halt after careening around a corner into a dimly lit laboratory filled with several very high tech machines, among an array of test tubes and chemicals. "Hey, where'd he go?"

T-Bone pointed across the lab. "There's another room over there." He darted towards the door. Razor followed only a few steps before a slimy, thorn covered vine wrapped around his ankles.

Dr. Viper laughed from the ventilation shaft above the Swat Kat's head.

Razor twisted and fell onto his back, simultaneously aiming his glovatrix at the vine. "I really need to start carrying weed killer with me." He fired two mini buzz-saw missiles. Then he followed it with a mini-baby boomer in Viper's direction.

Debris fell from the ceiling while Razor tried to untangle himself from the remaining vine wrapped around his legs. T-Bone grabbed his arms and slid him out of the way. The larger Swat Kat readied his glovatrix for when the dust settled.

"Isssss that all you've got?" Dr. Viper hissed.

"Just getting you down to our level," T-Bone smirked and took aim.

Viper commanded his plantimals to attack. Immediately, the same slime covered vegetation sprang from the floor to entangle T-Bone.

"What the... ugh...." T-Bone struggled to work his glovatrix paw free. The thorns tore at his flight suit.

Razor sliced through his partner's restraints and fired on Dr. Viper a second time. The scientist cackled loudly as he avoided the shot. "Thissss will hold you off while I esssssscape!" He tossed a vial of acid in the smaller vigilante's direction. Razor narrowly dodged the vile and it hit a machine behind him causing it to spark as the acid ate through the metal. At the same time, one of the still wriggling pieces of mutagen enhanced vines smacked into the table containing various experiments. More fearful of the chemicals than the frying electrical components, Razor backed into the machine.

T-Bone, who was still struggling to untangle himself, looked up in time to catch the high voltage warning on the equipment behind his partner. "Razor, watch out!"

Before the smaller kat could touch the machine, however, it exploded. An exposed and very live wire landed in some of the spilled chemicals. Razor ducked to avoid the explosion, but the electricity was causing the chemicals on the floor to burn, filling the room with smoke.

Razor gasped and choked as the smoke filled his lungs. He struggled to activate the mask in his helmet but his reactions had immediately slowed.

Using his shoulder, T-Bone maneuvered enough to activate his gas mask. If he could just free his arms, he'd be able to cut the vines loose. While his partner choked and coughed loudly behind him, he managed to get some slack and move his wrist.

Razor couldn't see what was going on. He was on his knees at this point, trying desperately to lift his arms. His body felt tingly at first, but then an unbearable amount of pain shot from his toes all the way up to his ears. He gasped but his lungs didn't even have enough oxygen to scream. All he could manage was a pathetic whimper before his vision doubled, then swayed, as he began to black out.

T-Bone finally cut himself free and stumbled into the pinkish gray smoke to find his partner. "Razor!" He called out, muffled by the mask. He spotted the figure in the smoke, crumpled in a heap on the tile floor. "Crud..." He cursed and knelt to lift the slender tom. Once free of the lab, T-Bone sat Razor down to check his pulse. He managed not to leap for joy when he felt the beating, unsteady as it was, beneath his fingertips. It was when he leaned closer to see if he was breathing that he noticed a difference. Did Razor have... boobs?

That was when Dr. Zyme and several lesser scientists came running. "We heard the explosion. I just wanted to be sure that none of our experiments... oh my..." The bio-chemist was far quicker in noticing the change than T-Bone.

Razor moaned softly and tiredly blinked his eyes open. He wished he hadn't. The light was far to bright and the sharp pain it caused made his stomach turn violently. He moaned again and squeezed his amber eyes shut. "T-Bone?"

"I'm right here buddy." He faltered before placing his paw on his friend's arm.

"D.... did you get him?" He coughed. His lungs burned. Keeping his eyes shut, he took stock of his injuries. 'That's easy,' he thought. 'Everything hurts.'

"Snake puss got away again." T-Bone's eyes traveled the length of Razor's body. "Um... how... how do you feel?"

Razor was unnerved by the caution in his pilot's voice. He wondered what part of his body had been mutated as he cautiously opened his eyes. This time he squinted until his vision slowly adjusted. "I'm not a frog, am I?" His voice didn't sound right. It was too high pitched.

"Uh... not quite..." T-Bone looked up at Dr. Zyme. "What _exactly_ where you working on?"

"Nothing that would do _this_. It must have been a pretty drastic chemical reaction to alter a kat this... dramatically."

Razor, who had yet to notice the physical change, frowned. "The chemicals on the floor where electrically charged." He looked up at T-Bone. The shocked look on his face was scaring him. Jake held up his paws and looked at them. Then he looked at his feet out in front of him. "What's going on?"

"You think you can stand?" T-Bone said as he noticed a mirrored glass window down the hall.

"Yeah..." He held out a paw for T-Bone to pull him to his feet. Razor felt his knees buckle and T-Bone helped him over to the mirror.

"Are you ready for this?"

"I'm not sure," Razor replied. He met his reflection. His eyes widened and his breath caught in his throat. This had to be a joke. Hanging out from beneath his helmet and black mask was a long mane of reddish brown hair. That was the least of his worries. He looked himself up and down slowly before turning his head to look at T-Bone. Razor opened and closed his mouth stupidly as he tried to form words, tried to breathe... anything.

"It's kind of a shock, huh?" T-Bone tried to joke.

Razor promptly rolled his eyes backwards and collapsed unconscious to the ground. He remained unconscious even as Dr. Zyme made several calls to have the Swat Kat examined while T-Bone moved him before the Enforcers could see the damage.

* * *

T-Bone wasn't exactly sure he wanted to be in the room for this, but he had to protect Razor's identity, whatever that was now. He assisted in removing his friend's flight suit.

"Holy..." He muttered, taking in his friend's bare chest.

Dr. Mariana Chartreuse was the on staff physician at Megakat Bio-Chemical Research. She'd been in said position for several years, and had seen many strange things as a result of laboratory accidents. This, however, was a first. She sighed and prepared to remove the vigilante's boxers.

"Hey!" T-Bone gave her a shocked look. "What are you doing?"

"We need to see how thorough the transformation was." She ignored his outburst.

T-Bone wanted to look away, but it was like a bad car wreck. His eyes widened as he saw what was under Razor's shorts... or rather... what wasn't.

"I'm afraid life is about to get complicated for your young friend, here." Dr. Chartreuse gave T-Bone a sympathetic look as she returned the underwear. "Any further tests will need to be done once he's awake. We'll need his consent."

"Until then?" T-Bone looked stricken.

"Until then, you might as well get comfortable. Don't worry. The Enforcers have no need to be on this side of the complex. There's an alert button on the side of the exam table. Right here." She lifted it so that T-Bone could see it. "When he wakes up, you can press that so we can finish the exam."

T-Bone watched her leave and removed his helmet. His mask was sweaty. And he felt weary as he sat down and rested his head against the walls. "This is nuts," he mumbled. He didn't have a long wait before his partner started to come back around.

Razor, who'd been stripped down to just his underwear and his mask, had been covered with a blanket. He groaned. Then he shivered. For a moment, he simply lay there with his eyes shut. He was sore. And not moving seemed like the best idea. Then, like a right hook to the jaw, he remembered seeing his reflection. He gasped and shot up, causing the blanket to fall away.

T-Bone jumped up to steady his partner.

Razor sucked in panicked breaths and grabbed the blanket, pulling it up over his... er... her breasts. "Please tell me this is a dream?"

"Afraid not." T-Bone replied. "Look on the bright side."

"There's a bright side?"

"You're totally hot."

Razor's ears flattened and his...uh... her tail twitched angrily. "Not helping..." He... I mean she... ground out through clenched teeth. "This isn't permanent, is it?"

T-Bone shrugged. "I'm supposed to let Dr. Chartreuse, who is also kind of hot, by the way, know when you're awake. She said there's some more tests to do but that you had to consent to it first." He gave Razor a concerned look. He was angry. That much was clear. But he could sense the barely contained fear and confusion. "I figured I'd give you a minute to get it together before they turned you into a pin cushion."

Razor puffed out an irritated sigh. "That's going to take far more than a minute, T-Bone. Might as well go ahead and get it over with. At least that way I'll know if something seriously got screwed up." She grimaced. "Well... more screwed up than all of this anyway..."

T-Bone snorted and pressed the call button.

Dr. Chartreuse had an assistant take a blood sample. Then she started talking about having to do a more thorough examination. That's when Razor told T-Bone he could just... wait outside. This was already beyond mortifying.

After having every inch of his new body poked and prodded, Razor was several shades of red and pulling back on _her_ flight suit.

"Do you want me to tell T-Bone he can come back in?" Dr. Chartreuse asked. Her voice was an unnerving soothing tone.

Razor looked down and sighed. "Can I just be alone for a few minutes?"

She nodded and gently patted the _she-kat's_ arm. Razor watched her go and let out a bragged breath. There were so many things running through _her_ head. There was a mirror on the wall. With shaking paws, _she_ removed _her_ mask. It was like looking at someone completely different. Sure, the same features were there. The same cinnamon colored fur. The same honey colored eyes. But the thick wavy hair was hard to look at, although not nearly as overwhelming as the perky boobs, smaller, more defined waist line and the wider hips. It was a body any she-kat would've loved to have. Petite and curved in all the right places. Jake tasted bile in his throat and promptly began to vomit just as the door opened.

"Razor you alright? I was getting... worried..." T-Bone grimaced, then shut the door when he realized Razor wasn't wearing a mask. "At least you didn't get turned into a frog or anything."

Razor spat in the sink and then glared at T-Bone's reflection. "Would you _please_ stop trying to make me feel better about this?"

"Well, I'm kind of at a loss on what to do here." T-Bone crossed his arms over his chest.

"How about thinking about what we're going to do if they can't fix this? I think that's a good start." Razor snapped.

T-Bone shrugged. "We'll think of something."

There was a knock on the door. Dr. Chartreuse waited a few moments before opening the door. It gave Razor enough time to slip back on the mask.

"Okay, I have some good news and some bad news... and then a lot more bad news." She held a folder in her paws. "What do you want first?"

"Unless the good news is that you can fix this right now, I don't really care what order you give it in." Razor sulked.

"Alright then," She rolled her chair in his direction. "You're going to want to sit down."

Razor gave T-Bone a defeated look and sat in the chair.

"Good news is, it doesn't seem like anything was injured or damaged in the change. Superficially anyway. If the chemicals had any effects on your health, we wouldn't be able know what to look for until you started showing symptoms. That being said, you should know that the transformation from male to female was complete. Right down to your DNA. It's truly amazing, really. You might as well have been born a girl."

"Amazing isn't exactly the word I'd use to describe it." Razor blinked up at the doctor.

"Well in any case, we're at a complete loss as far as what to do. We have no idea which chemicals got mixed before they were activated. It could be years before we managed to duplicate what caused the change. And until we can duplicate it, we can't know how to reverse it."

"So what you're saying is that I'm pretty much screwed?" Razor tried not to sound bitter. It wasn't the doctor's fault. And Dr. Zyme had told them to be careful. "Got any advice?"

Dr. Chartreuse's smile was strained. "Did you take sex ed in high school?"

Razor nodded.

"I hope you paid attention."

* * *

Razor remained quiet on the flight home.

Changing had been a little awkward. Jake shot Chance a glare.

"What?" Chance tried not to laugh. "If it was me, you'd be staring at my tits too."

"Yeah well, it's not you." Jake slammed the locker shut and fought the urge to sway her hips as she went upstairs.

"You know, eventually, you're gonna have to stop sulking and just deal with it." Chance followed her. "And we're gonna have to do something. Kats are going to be able to put two and two together when I keep calling the new girl 'Jake.'" He looked at the baggy jeans and t-shirt his friend was wearing. "You want me to call my sister and have her bring you some clothes?"

"What's wrong with what I'm wearing?" Jake looked down at the worn and greasy jeans and old gray t-shirt.

"You look like a dyke." Chance said bluntly. "Besides, if you're stuck being a she-kat, you might as well dress like one. It'll make covering what happened easier."

"First of all," Jake narrowed her eyes. "If dressing like a dyke means I won't have a bunch of toms checking me out, then I'm going to dress like a dyke. Second, don't call Shiloh. She's going to take one look at me and laugh for the next century. Her teasing was bad enough before all of this."

Chance rolled his eyes. "I don't see why the two of you can't just get along." He grabbed the phone. "I'm calling her. There's a whole bunch of girl stuff you'll probably need that neither one of us can think of. When I get off the phone, we're gonna have to figure out what happened to Jake and where..." he paused. "Where.... you came from."

The saving grace in being a Swat Kat was that neither of the vigilantes had much family to speak of. Jake had an aunt... somewhere, but that was it. Chance still had his parents and his younger sister Shiloh. Shiloh was Jake's age. And when Chance started considering Jake family, so did Shiloh. Along with that, came her affectionate name calling and loving barbs.

"Okay," She said, holding a duffel bag full of clothes. "Where's the nerd hiding?"

"Bedroom," Chance replied. "And cut 'im some slack. How'd you like to be turned into a boy?"

"You have no idea how much easier life would be." Shiloh quipped. "And you mean 'her.'" She went down the hall and knocked on Jake's door. Her eyes widened when she took in the feminine face staring back at her. "Wow."

"That's it? Wow? Couldn't come up with anything better?" Jake sneered.

Shiloh shook her head. "Well, I was compiling a list on my way, but now that I see you, I'm actually kind of jealous. Look at your hair!" She gushed and pushed Jake back into the bedroom, shutting the door behind her. "And you're so thin! I mean, you've always been skinny, but as a tom you looked scrawny. As a she-kat... my clothes might be a little big for you." Shiloh blushed beneath her trademark Furlong blonde fur and black stripes.

Jake rolled her eyes. "You're not fat."

"I didn't say I was." Shiloh glared and dumped her bag on the bed.

Jake made a disgusted face and picked up a pair of blue cotton panties. "You haven't worn these, have you?"

Shiloh rolled her eyes. "No. I made a special trip to the mall just to buy you some underwear." She shook her head. "You're lucky they're clean. You need any help getting dressed?"

"I'm not an idiot." Jake replied. "I've undressed plenty of she-kats to know which article of clothing goes where."

"Your mom doesn't count." Shiloh smirked on her way out.

Jake looked down at the clothing she'd brought. "She couldn't at least bring me matching underwear?" She picked up the gray sports bra.

After she'd dressed, she looked down and sighed. "I feel like an idiot. And Chance is going to laugh me into next week." Jake nervously bit her lip. "Might as well get it over with." She opened the door and walked out.

Shiloh whistled. "Helllooo nurse!"

Chance felt his jaw drop. Shiloh's clothes were a little loose on Jake's new body, but not drastically. They weren't anything spectacular either. Just a simple pair of low rise jeans with a flared leg and what would've been a fitted t-shirt on his sister. It looked much more modest on Jake. But the large tabby couldn't stop himself from imagining his friend in a slightly smaller size.

Jake blushed. She felt like he should be feeling perverted walking around in ladies clothing, but it felt comfortable. She looked up at Chance and then glared. "Chance!" She snapped. "You're such a pig."

Chance grinned and shook his head. "I... I can't help it. It's not like I ever imagined what you'd look like as a chick, but I don't think I would've figured you as attractive."

Jake rolled her eyes. "Alright master of the she-kat ways. I'm at your mercy."

"Not yet you aren't. I'm not calling you 'Jake' out in public. And what about your driver's license and stuff? You gonna go tell the social security administration and the DMV that you just decided to have a sex change?"

"Hell no!" Jake paled. Then she sighed. "Look... they... they said this was permanent, right?"

Chance nodded.

Jake sighed again. "Then my identity is about to get stolen." All three kats made a trip down into the hangar. Jake sat down at the powerful computer she'd built from scrap. While she set about turning Jake Clawson, male into.... Jacquelyn Clawson female, Shiloh started compiling a list of necessary girl items.

"So, you're hormones and everything got switched around?" Shiloh made a face.

Jake nodded. "That's pretty much what the doc said. Why?"

She simply laughed and looked at her brother, he decided lifting weights was the best solution to the situation. "Hey Chance, you think you can deal with PMS once a month?" The barbell crashed to the floor.

Jake paused mid keystroke and looked up. "Excuse me?"

Instead of elaborating, Shiloh made a face like she was thinking really hard. "I'll call my gyno and set you up an appointment when you get your identity fixed."

Several hours later, Jake looked up tiredly. "Okay... done. Just gotta wait on a couple of 'replacement' documents to come in the mail and I can go to the DMV and get my license."

"That's going to take a couple of weeks at least." Shiloh said. "In the mean time, you need some clothes."

"Yeah well, that's gonna have to wait. My credit card says Jake and if they card me I can't use it."

"No big." Shiloh shrugged. "It's on me. I have a good paying job, remember?"

Jake and Chance rolled their eyes as she, once again, reminded them of her powerful position as assistant to the District Attorney of MKC.

* * *

Jake was glad she'd had to foresight to read the sizes on Shiloh's clothing before he put them on. It definitely made things less awkward. Especially when she dragged her into the underwear section.

"You should get this one!" Shiloh excitedly held up a pair of hot pink lacy boy shorts.

Jake's eyes widened and she snatched it out of her paws and put it back on the rack. "I'm not wearing that."

"Come on. You've got such a cute butt. It would look good on you."

"Well I'm the only one seeing this cute butt, so I'm not getting something intended for other kats to see."

"Who says no one else is going to see it?"

Jake glared at her. "You know any single lesbians?"

Shiloh thought for a moment. "Actually, I don't know any lesbians."

"My point exactly." Jake sighed. This was so frustrating. No wonder girls took forever shopping. Everything seemed so... slutty.

Shiloh figured Jake at a size 6. "How about you just stand there and look cute and let me pick out your clothes? This takes experience."

"Fine with me," Jake threw up her arms in defeat.

Shiloh was like a kitten in a candy factory. She didn't have a whole lot of friends. With Jake... er Jacquelyn's current situation, Shiloh had a feeling they'd be spending a lot more time together.

"Are we done?" Jake asked.

"Not yet. You need shoes."

"My feet are still the same size, thank you very much."

"Yeah, but a she-kat's feet are shaped a little different than a tom's. Besides, you're converses look like shit."

* * *

Chance quickly averted his gaze before his friend turned around and caught him looking at her butt again. It was just so hard getting used to the change. "Why couldn't he have been turned into an ugly girl? That would make this so much easier!" He thought.

The familiar sound of a dump truck backing up alerted them both to the arrival of their _favorite_ two kats. Jake and Chance looked at each other before going down into the garage.

"Hey we brought yous two bums something t' do today!" Burke grinned broadly.

"Is it just me, or are you uglier today?" Chance snarled back at the filthy, gap-toothed kat.

"What'd you say to me you..." Burke trailed off as he caught sight of the she-kat standing next to the ex-Enforcer. "Well, well, well. Hey Murray! Get a gander at this dame! What's a babe like you doing in a dump like this?"

Jake couldn't stop the look of shock and disgust that crossed her face.

"Mmm mm mmmm," Murray added in as he came around and took in the girl. "What happened to the scrawny little shrimp, Furlong? He wasn't cuttin' it so you had to get a girl to replace him?"

"That's none of your business, fur brain." Chance moved in front of Jake, feeling suddenly protective.

"Heh. Hey, nice legs, toots. What time do they open?" Burke quipped with a wink.

"Clever," Jake replied. "You think of that all by yourself or did your mama help you?"

Had Jake still been Jake, Burke and Murray would've taken that as their cue to start swinging. But since Jake was decidedly not Jake anymore, the two half wits laughed loudly. "I got something better for you to use that purdy little mouth for."

"Hey!" Chance snarled, grabbing a pipe out of the pile of scrap on their doorstep. "Didn't anyone ever teach you not to talk to a lady like that?"

"You're forgetting one thing, Chance." Jake hissed, stepping out from behind her friend and getting in Burke's face. "I'm no lady."

Burke had been expecting a slap. Maybe even a back-paw to the cheek. He definitely wasn't expecting the closed fist punch to the jaw.

Burke squawked loudly and spat a mouthful of blood onto the dirt. "Crazy bitch," he hissed.

Chance smirked as they drove away. "Not bad... for a girl," he teased.

"Please tell me I've never talked to a girl like that?" Jake looked down at her feet.

"You've got more class than that." Chance said. "And you should probably just brace yourself. You're a hot chick and a mechanic. Kat's are either not going to take you seriously, or try to run their game on you. Most likely both."

"You know what?"

"Huh?" Chance asked as he began sorting out the pile of scrap.

"It would be really awesome if you stopped calling me 'hot'."

* * *

Deputy Mayor Calico Briggs groaned as her car's temperature gauge inched up towards the hot side of the dial. "If it's not one thing with this car..." She trailed off. It was bad enough it was 90 degrees outside. She turned the heat on in her car to take some of the heat off the engine and rolled down the windows, a trick her father had taught her when her first car had the same problem. "I know these guys are probably getting tired of seeing me."

When a she-kat in a pair of slightly baggy torn blue jeans and a tank top came out to pull her car into the garage, she shot Chance a look. "What happened to your friend? Jake?" She trusted those two mechanics a hundred percent with her troublesome car. She wasn't too sure about this new girl. She did look a little familiar though.

"Jake... uh..." Chance looked at his partner. "Jake was in a little accident. This is his twin sister, Jacquelyn. Don't worry though, she's just as much of a whiz with cars as Jake is."

"His sister, huh?" She gave Jacquelyn an assessing look and smiled. "That's why you looked so familiar."

Jake had pulled her long hair up into a messy ponytail. She wiped her paw on her jeans when Callie held out her paw in greeting.

"How long have you been in town?"

"Oh... um... a week or so." Jake gave Chance a nervous look.

Chance was clearly a million miles away, imagining some hot girl on girl action between 'Jacquelyn' and Callie.

"Don't worry about your car. It's in good paws."

"I don't have a doubt in my mind." Callie smiled at the petite she-kat. "How long do you think it will take?"

"With where your water pump sits, we're gonna need to take out most of the engine to get to it. It will be a couple of days." Jake replied. "Do you need a ride home or something?"

Callie smiled. "You're just too sweet. No. My ride should be here any minute." Right on cue, the Mayor's expensive limousine pulled into the dusty lot.

When she was gone, Jake turned to look at her coworker. "You can stop day dreaming, Chance. We've got work to do."

* * *

"Alright sweetie, just put your feet up in the stirrups."

Jake was sure that the only time he'd ever wanted to hear those words was if she was riding a horse.

"Do you remember when your last period was?"

"Um..." Jake bit his lip. "Not... exactly...."

"It's alright. I don't always keep track of mine. Are you sexually active?"

Jake had to chuckle at this. "Yeah but... it's been a while..." 'God this is embarrassing!' She screamed in thought.

"Well since you can't remember your last period, you'll need to take a pregnancy test. We'll be able to tell you where you are in your cycle from that."

As Shiloh's doctor examined her, Jake wondered if maybe girls really didn't enjoy it as much as guys. Because as much time as this lady was spending down there, Jake wasn't feeling anything more than awkward and impatient. "A little bit of discomfort, my tail," she thought.

After the exam and a pregnancy test, Dr. Higgins informed 'Jacquelyn' that she was perfectly healthy.

"I can't really see why you wouldn't have had one. Nothing seems out of order. If you don't get it in two or three weeks, reschedule and we'll see about setting you up on birth control to regulate it."

Jake shot Shiloh a hateful look as they left. "You know, this whole girl thing is really a pain in the ass."

"You have no idea," Chance's sister replied.

* * *

Jake jumped out of bed and landed in a heap on the floor. The alarm was blaring loudly. She looked at the clock and groaned. "Don't criminals need their sleep too?" She sighed and pushed herself up and ran down the stairs.

"What's the damage?" Jake asked as she reached her locker.

"Viper. Again." Chance grumbled as he slid off the basketball shorts he wore over his boxers while he slept. He was pulling on his flight suit while Jake was sliding off her own shorts, revealing a pair of hot pink lace boy shorts. He arched an eyebrow and grinned. "Those are cute."

"What?" Jake gave Chance a dumbfounded look. Chance nodded his head down. Jake blushed and then glared. "Do you mind?" She slid on her own flight suit, which Shiloh had gratefully altered to fit a female frame.

"Not at all," T-Bone smirked and turned towards the jet.

After two and half weeks of kats undressing her with their eyes, this was starting to become routine. She didn't know when she started responding to "Jac" or "J." Chance had made it a habit because he didn't want to slip up and call her 'Jake' in the presence of someone who knew Jake was a tom.

"At least this is still the same," Razor thought. Sure, her voice wasn't anything close to masculine anymore, but she could still kick some serious tail. They'd gone out on a test flight just to make sure her reflexes hadn't been damaged in the accident.

"Any sign of him?" T-Bone asked impatiently.

"Um... I'm not too sure, but I think that giant swamp where the park used to be could be a good place to start." Razor pointed.

T-Bone sighed. "What is it with him and swamps? And I'm so tired of giant bugs and overgrown weeds!"

"Yeah well, I don't know about you, but I'm just glad this fight is outside." Razor added. "I don't think I could take something else exploding and turning me into something different."

T-Bone flew the Turbokat above the swamp.

"Back off, Swat Kats! The Enforcers will handle this!" Commander Feral's voice boomed out of his megaphone.

"Sure, as soon as we find Dr. Viper and stop this swamp from taking over the rest of the city."

* * *

Jake shivered as she peeled off the wet, smelly flight suit. As much as she loved going out on the Cyclotron and fighting their enemies paw to paw, this was one she'd hoped they would've been able to take care of in the air.

"I got dibs on the shower," she glared at Chance. He was just as smelly and covered in swamp water and sludge as she was.

"Ladies first," he teased halfheartedly.

"You know what? You can just shove it up your ass, Chance. It's six in the morning. I've had to deal with your shit for, I dunno, 2 weeks now? Can you just can it for five seconds?" Jake snapped.

Chance's jaw fell open. "Sorry J, I was just teasing you."

"Yeah well, I'm tired of it." Jake seethed and stomped up the stairs in only her underwear because she didn't want to get the muck from the swamp on her shorts.

Chance watched her go and rolled his eyes. Six AM? Shiloh would be on her jog. He went upstairs and picked up the phone.

"Yeah?" Her voice panted in his ear.

"And the bitchiness starts..." Chance complained.

"What?" She blew out a breath. It sounded like she was slowing to a walk. "What are you talking about?"

"You know the whole thing with Dr. Viper this morning? I'm sure it was all over the news."

"Yeah. That. So?" Shiloh was becoming impatient. Chance was screwing up her rhythm.

He explained Jake's sudden temper tantrum over a little bit of teasing only to have her laugh in his ear.

"What's today?" She asked.

"I don't know... Tuesday? Why?"

"No. What day is it? The 14th?" Shiloh chuckled again. "I think I know what's going on. You wanna get on his... um... her good side?"

"If it means not getting snapped at over something she was just fine with two days ago, then yeah." Chance heard the shower shut off.

"You got any ice cream?" Shiloh asked.

"No. Why would she want ice cream?"

"Oh come on, Chance. You have a sister. I'm sure you can figure this out."

"I've had, like, 4 hours of sleep. Can't you give me a hint?"

Shiloh laughed again. "Nah. I'll come by on my lunch hour."

Chance looked at the phone in his paw with a confused look on his face. "Ice cream does sound kind of good," he thought.

* * *

"Hey J, I'm sorry about earlier." Chance tried to apologize as his still sulking friend came out of the bathroom.

"Yeah. Okay. Whatever. Can we just drop it?" Jake winced. Shiloh had been right about the pain.

"What's wrong?" Chance was fearful she'd been injured during their mission.

"Nothing," She hissed. "Just go take your shower already. You smell like an alligator."

"What the hell is your problem?" Chance snapped. "I know I've been giving you a little bit of grief over this whole thing, but aside from that, I've been pretty nice about it. I don't know what the hell is up with the attitude, but I'm not going to walk on eggshells because you have to wear a bra instead of a jockstrap. You should be thanking your lucky stars you weren't killed!"

Jake clenched her fists and fought to keep from stomping her foot. "Why don't you just go blow something up and get turned into a girl! Then you can yell at me for being upset! Until then, you don't have a clue how frustrating this is!" Tears started to well up in her eyes.

Chance's eyes widened. The whole scene was unnerving.

"God damn it!" Jake shouted and forcefully wiped her eyes.

"You know what... maybe you should just get some sleep or something. We're both really tired and it's almost time to open the garage..." This was uncharted territory. "This is almost as bad as when Shiloh got her first...." His silent thought trailed off as realization hit him.

"And there you go, staring at me again." Jake hissed. "I'm going to bed."

* * *

Jake frantically wiped at the tears streaming down her cheeks. The worst part was not knowing exactly why she was so upset. "I can't believe I'm crying over this." She sniffled and pulled her knees up under her chin. Her stomach hurt and so did her back. For the first time in her life, she felt like she was fat. Jake shifted uncomfortably. She'd been hesitant to go with the tampons but Shiloh had insisted. "You move around too much for anything else," she'd said at the time.

Jake sucked in a shaky breath and turned off the lamp. Just as she slid beneath the sheets, the door opened.

"What do you want, Chance?" Jake asked quietly. Her tone had changed from accusing and hateful to downright depressed.

"I have something that might make you feel better. Shiloh suggested ice cream, but I think this might be a little more effective."

Jake rolled over and looked at Chance. He held up a bottle of water and a couple ibuprofen. "Now why didn't I think of that?" Jake sniffled. She swallowed the aspirin. "Sorry... for you know... snapping at you."

Chance's eyes widened in mock surprise. "Damn that worked fast. And those are just painkillers. Wonder what the stuff that's really supposed to help you will do."

Jake glared. "Seriously? You can't even let me apologize before you start in?"

"Oookay. I take it back. Didn't work at all." He grinned. Then got serious. "Come on, J. Lighten up. How long have you known me? This is how I deal with stuff. Besides, you being all moody and grouchy takes away from your sex appeal."

Jake rolled her eyes. "Please tell me that doesn't work on all the girls you've been with."

Chance shrugged. "Some of them. Mostly the drunk ones."

"Well that's a relief."

"You know me too well for it to work on you."

The way he said it, it almost sounded like a come on.

"That and the whole, you know, being a tom thing." Jake reminded him.

"You make a pretty good she-kat."

"This is getting kind of weird."

Chance bit his lip. "Yeah. I guess it is." He laughed away the tension. "I'm gonna go make some coffee. Get some sleep. I'll probably crash after Tweedledee and Tweedledum drop off our junk." He left Jake's room and shut the door behind him. He had to take a deep breath and close his eyes to slow his thought process down. He and Jake had always had this emotional bond. It's what made them such good friends. Now that he was a she, and she was attractive as hell, Chance was finding it hard to remember that Jake had been like a brother to him. "He should feel like a sister if anything," one side said. "Yeah, the stepsister with no relation whatsoever that you'd nail to the wall," the other side drooled. "Get a grip, Furlong!" Chance screamed inside his head. "Besides, it's different for him. He got turned _into_ something he's attracted to."

Jake contemplated following Chance back out of his room. "No," she thought. "He's going to bed in a little bit anyway." She was feeling mixed up inside. In her entire life, she couldn't ever remember being attracted to toms. But just the other day, she caught herself watching Chance lift weights. That was part of her problem. Sure, there was the other thing, and that was new. And it was making her moody. On top of that, the way she'd been catching Chance looking at her made her feel weird. She recognized the feeling. This was the first time it had ever been directed towards the same gender... or now the opposite gender. "This is all just too much," she whispered.

Later, she woke up with Shiloh shaking a little bottle with a blue label in her ear. "Wakey wakey."

"What do you want, Shi?" Jake groaned.

"Chance said to tell you to just take the day off."

"Then why are you waking me up?"

"Because it's fun." Shiloh grinned widely. "These will work way better than what Chance gave you this morning." She reached into her pocket book. "And this will help too"

Jake looked at the large chocolate bar and felt her mouth water. She never even really liked chocolate before.

Later she would call her and tell her that she was a lifesaver and that she owed her one.

* * *

It was 95 degrees and the pathetic little shop fan wasn't doing any good. Jake had sacrificed her modesty for a pair of absurdly short shorts and a very tight fitting tank top. She was bent over the engine of a suped up little Civic, reconnecting a hose. Jake had finally grown accustomed to her friend's staring. In fact, she'd started doing things to provoke it. A few weeks ago, she would've rather sweated to death than wear such a skimpy outfit. She stretched a little further. Then pouted when a vehicle pulled in. It was some young hotshot driving an old pickup truck that sounded like one of the axles was about to fall off.

"You got this?" Chance gave the rough around the edges tom a hard look.

"No problem." Jake grinned.

"Anyone working today?" The tom gave the scantily clad she-kat an approving look. His gray eyes thoroughly examining every curve of her body.

"You're looking at her." Jake could just tell it was going to be one of those guys.

He laughed. "Cute. No really. What are you? A secretary?"

Jake held up her greasy paws. "Do these look like the paws of a secretary?"

"Look honey. I don't doubt for a second that you work here, but I can think of a million things you'd be much better at than fixing cars."

Jake put her paws on her hips and fixed him with a defiant glare. "Like what, exactly?"

He smirked. "With a body like that, it could be more than a million actually."

"You need help with something or you gonna stand there hitting on my mechanic all day?" Chance snarled.

Jake jumped slightly. She hadn't even heard him come up behind her.

"You... your mechanic?"

Jake grinned. "Told ya so."

"You've got to be kidding me." The tom arched an eyebrow.

Chance shrugged. "Take it or leave it. She's the best I know."

"Best at what, exactly?"

Jake grinned. She was going to have a little fun with this. "Well that depends on the _service_ you need."

Chance bit his tongue. What was she doing? Why the hell was she talking to this douche like _that_?

"Well, babe. If you're as good at what you do as he says you are, I guess I'll just have to take his word for it." He flashed a grin, exposing his brilliant set of sharp white teeth.

"I suppose you will," Jake winked at him and took his keys, brushing his paw lightly.

It turned out that the customer had driven over something and managed to get a branch lodged in the undercarriage. Jake was sure Chance was going to blow a gasket when she told him that he had a "very _large_ piece of wood stuck in it."  
When he drove away, Jake could barely contain her laughter. "That was almost too much fun."

"I thought it was kind of slutty, actually." Chance glared at her.

"Oh come on, Chance. I'm stuck like this. The least I could do is have a little fun with it." She pouted. "Jeez, you'd almost think you were jealous or something."

Chance clenched and unclenched his fists. "Jealous isn't the word."

"Well what word would you use, then?" Jake didn't know what she'd expected, but it wasn't being pressed against the back end of the Civic she'd been working on and sucked into a deep kiss. Jake was stunned at first, then she parted her lips and let his tongue explore her mouth. Her mind was screaming "you're letting a guy kiss you!" While other parts were screaming "let him do more!"

"Chance," Jake breathed into his mouth.

He pulled back, not looking the least bit sorry. "You have to be wondering what it feels like."

Jake gave a nervous chuckle. "Actually I was going to suggest we do this somewhere that wasn't... you know... so open..."

If Chance was surprised, it was hard to tell. "You don't have to tell me twice."

Jake gasped when he lifted her up and carried her up the stairs, kicking the door shut behind him. Chance wasted no time as he laid her on her bed and slid up her tank top along with her sports bra, exposing her firm, perky boobs. He took one into his mouth and swirled his tongue around one of her erect nipples before gently tugging on it with his teeth.

Jake couldn't stop the pleased sound from coming out of her mouth. She could feel Chance grin before he moved to the other one. He was pressing hard into her leg through his coveralls. She unzipped them and pulled them down while he moved from her chest to the tight little shorts she'd been wearing. She'd been so busy trying to get him naked that she hadn't noticed his movements until her legs were over her shoulders and his tongue was doing tricks between them.

She had to hand it to the large tabby. His experience with the ladies was certainly obvious. The pathetic mewing noises she made were a clear testament of his skill. Jake felt ripples of pleasure through her body as she rocked against his mouth.

"God..." she quivered. "Chance... you... oh..." Her brain couldn't seem to string together what she was trying to say until he stopped and moved back up her trim body. She felt his excitement brush against her. "Wait..."

Chance looked disappointed. After all this, now she was getting nervous?

"You can't just... remember... 100% girl... you knock me up and I'm kicking your ass..."

Chance grinned sheepishly. "I don't suppose you got any lying around?"

Jake nodded. "Top drawer," she pointed her head at the table.

The tabby stretched to open it, teasing her opening just enough to make her squirm. It seemed like it only took a flick of the wrist and he was ready.

"You realize," he purred. "You're pretty much a virgin."

"Hardly," she quipped, but had to retract the statement when he collided with the barrier.

"Wanna try again?" Chance bit down on her neck to distract her while he pushed through. She hissed softly, but he was so focused on how tight and wet she was that he didn't let it stop him. He shifted so that he was rubbing right on that hot spot with every thrust. He reached a paw up and snaked it into her thick, fluffy hair, wondering when she'd let it down. She smelt so good! Like honeysuckles and jet fuel.

Jake wrapped her legs around him tightly and matched his thrusts. It wasn't supposed to feel _this_ good. They were supposed to do this and get it out of their systems and then realize it wasn't going to work. But she was starting to see stars and feel tingly in the tips of her toes.

Chance was feeling dizzy himself. He felt her suddenly seize up around his length and cry out. She trembled all over. Chance's eyes widened and he tightened his grip on her hair as he lost his control much sooner than he was used to. She didn't loosen her grip, even after he'd finished.

"You okay?"

She nodded, dazed.

"You... you wanna let me go?" Chance chuckled.

"Sorry," she relaxed her legs, though they still shook.

"Well?" He twitched an ear.

"If this is how it feels on our end," Jake closed her eyes and licked her lips. "Why the hell are we so hard to get into bed?"

"Maybe you should spread the word," He teased, collapsing beside her. "So was it worth the weirdness?"

"The weirdest part was how not weird it felt." Jake shook her head, trying to stave off the confusion her analytical brain wanted to cause.

Chance made a 'huh' sound and looked up at the ceiling. The weirdest part for him, wasn't how good it felt. The weirdest part was how desperately he didn't want anyone else to feel that good with Jake. The sudden protective, jealous streak of selfishness surprised him. He felt it when Jake was hitting on that customer, and it still radiated through his veins even after they'd managed to diminish some of the tension.

There was a car horn outside.

"I... I think we better get back to work." Jake looked at Chance. If it felt that good with him, how did it feel with others?

_**Okay. By far probably my weirdest piece. Love it? Hate it? I'm thinking about writing several to go along with this idea. **_

_**Nyte Kat**_


	2. Chapter 2

_**This is continuing on from "Gender Bender." Remember Jake Clawson is now Jacquelyn Clawson. I hope there isn't too much confusion. Remember: adult content. Sorry but I can't help myself.**_

_**Nyte Kat **_

* * *

"How does 'make sure she stays out of trouble' translate into 'get her super smashed'?" Chance snarled at Shiloh as he pulled his partner from his sister's car.

Jake moaned into his arm. She couldn't ever remember being this drunk. Nor could she remember having so many members of the opposite sex take an interest in her when she was tom. She stumbled in the heels Shiloh had insisted she wear.

Chance shot his sister another seething look as he scooped up the intoxicated she-kat and carried her up the stairs.

"She's 25 Chance. She can do what she wants. I'm not her keeper." Shiloh defended. The only reason she wanted 'Jacquelyn' there anyway was because she was such a tom-magnet that she'd hoped at least one of the boys she rejected would be interested in the 'hot chick's friend.'

"And she thinks that just because she was a tom, she's got them all figured out." Chance gently laid his barely conscious partner and friend on the couch.

"It looked to me like she did." Shiloh pouted. "In any case, I'm the one who kept buying her drinks. Not some stranger."

"Shi, stop thinking about yourself in this. How many of the guys there offered to by J a drink?"

Shiloh shrugged. "Tons."

"And you solely took the responsibility of getting her drunk?"

She looked somewhat guilty. "Well not entirely, she let a few of them buy them for her, the ones she was really interested in."

"And any one of them could have slipped something in her drink and drugged her. What would you have done if you turned around and she was gone?" Chance had had just about enough of Shiloh using his she-kat to pick up toms. He'd sworn to protect Jake when he was a tom, and now that he was a she, and she looked like a goddess, Chance felt like his work had quadrupled. If he didn't know her, he would've done anything to score with her. But his 'anything' was a lot more legal than a lot of other kats' 'anything'.

Shiloh looked at her feet. "Nothing happened to her, well, besides scoring a date with the hottest kat I've ever seen. Look, she's just a little loopy from the alcohol, Chance. Don't be so protective. Gawd, it's almost like you lo..." She stopped and gasped.

Chance furrowed his brow. "You can go home now."

"Chance, I had no idea." Shiloh felt beyond guilty. If she would've known her brother had feelings for his friend, she would've never dragged her to all those parties and clubs.

"I said you can go home now, Shiloh." Chance was on the verge of losing his temper with his sister.

She felt it, the barely controlled rage, and nodded. "I'm really sorry, Chance. I didn't know." Shiloh hung her head as she turned around and left.

Chance ran a paw through Jake's styled reddish brown hair. It was hard with hairspray. And he hated it. She had glitter on her face. The black eyeliner that Shiloh had put on her was a little smeared and the 'chase me, fuck me' red lipstick looked like it had been recently reapplied, before Jake got too drunk to do it evenly. He swallowed the lump in his throat. "God you're a mess," he whispered.

"You're not so bad yourself, hotshot." Jake slurred, opening her glassy amber eyes.

"So you got a date, huh?" Chance disguised the hurt in his voice.

Jake grinned. "You have no idea..."

Chance sighed. How was he supposed to live with this? Jake was more than willing to share her bed with him, but his heart wanted more. And she.... well she'd enjoyed the sex too much to want a monogamous relationship. So the one time had been their only time. Chance was getting too old to play that game. He was 27. He was ready to start looking for that one in a million. The one he could trust to keep his secrets and honor that whole 'til death do us part' thing.

Even with all the girly emotions and hormones that came with Jake's new body, she had yet to have that desire. At least that much hadn't changed. Of course she was as smart as Jake always was. And her aim was just as perfect. The house, hangar and garage were all a little more tidy. But the intellect and skill that Jake had always had was still there. It had just been given a feminine touch.

But Chance remembered Jake looking for one night stands and 'cut buddies' as he'd put it. Nothing with substance. He'd been convinced there was no one in the entire world that could be trusted with his heart or his secrets. Regardless of letting Shiloh in. That was out of necessity. As a she-kat, she seemed to still have the same reasoning. Sex was sex. Love was for kats who didn't have secret identities.

The tabby gently scooped up the scantily clad she-kat and carried her to her bedroom. He was fairly sure the little black dress, see through in many places, was a nightie. Shiloh had been adamant it wasn't. "You do know it's October, right? Don't you think it's a little cold for that?" Chance had tried to get his friend to be a little more conservative. He clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth as he pulled off her heels. "You know, that dress just screams 'rape me'."

Jake giggled stupidly. "You can't rape the willing..." she purred.

"And this is exactly why you shouldn't drink." Chance reprimanded. "What if we got a call or something?"

She sobered somewhat at the thought. "Aw come off it Chance. I was just having a little fun."

"There's no such thing as a little fun when you're dressed like that." Chance snorted and turned off the light.

* * *

Chance felt his ears flatten against his head in frustration. He couldn't help but hear Jake's conversation on the phone with Shiloh.

"You're just jealous," the she-kat snipped. There was a pause. "He's a tiger, Shi. Of course I'm going to see him." Jake rolled her eyes dramatically and looked at the car she was supposed to be fixing. "What the hell is wrong with you? Last night you were practically getting numbers for me and now you're acting like _I_ did something wrong?"

Chance looked up. Then groaned. He really wished Shiloh would stop meddling. She was clearly trying to undo what she had done for her brother's sake.

"Yeah. Okay. If I do that, you're going to run in and pick up the pieces and make me seem like a bitch."

There was another pause. "Yes you are! Look, I'm going out with Renard tomorrow night whether you think it's a good idea or not. So get over yourself and stop being so jealous."

She hung up the phone and slammed it down on the desk. "Shiloh's something else..."

"Yep," Chance said from underneath his own work. "So he's a tiger, huh?"  
"Yeah," Jake replied quietly, suddenly feeling a little guilty.

"You should be careful."

Jake rolled her eyes. Not this again. "Yeah, I know. Guys are jerks... blah blah blah..."

Chance laughed lightly. "I wasn't going to say that." Was he really getting that repetitive? "I was going to say that tigers have a mean streak a mile wide and a very short temper."

Jake sighed and looked at the alternator she'd just removed. "I can take care of myself, Chance."

"And you've done a great job of it by letting Shiloh use you to get a date."

"At least she's being nice to me for once."

"She's not being nice to you. She's using you!" Chance argued.

"She's your sister. How can you say that?" Jake crossed her arms and glared, a motion that Chance found quite adorable. The tabby softened. "Just promise me you'll at least consider my warnings."

A breeze wafted in through the open bay doors and tousled Jake's long messy hair. She groaned and pulled a rubber band off her wrist. "I think I'm going to get this cut."

"Why? I like it." Chance let Jake change the conversation.

"Yeah well you don't have to brush it." Jake put it up in a sloppy ponytail.

"You should leave it. I think it's nice."

"Maybe," Jake went back to work. Her gut twisted at the compliment and she blushed. What was with her lately? They'd lived together for long enough not to feel awkward. Just being around him gave her butterflies now.

* * *

"What do you want to drink?" Renard Fauxpur looked across the table at his date. It was actually his second date with the beautiful Jacquelyn Clawson. The first was ruined by her silly little pager.

"Just water." Jake ignored the massive drink menu.

"Let me guess, you're on call again?" Renard was becoming tired of this already. What he wanted was to bed the fine piece of tail across from him. She had seemed like the kind to want to skip dinner and go right to dessert. Jacquelyn was sending him much different signals this time.

"I know. I'm really sorry, but until the Swat Kats stop destroying everyone's cars every time they show up, then it's always going to be this way." Jake had promised Chance she'd be more careful. This was her attempt.

"Well at least get something other than water. You should try their tea. It's impeccable."

Jake batted her thick eyelashes and smiled. "Oh alright. Will you order for me? I need to use the lady's room."

"Alright, but you have to eat whatever I order." The tiger gave her a teasing look. Their drinks arrived before his date returned and he slipped a little bottle out of his pocket. Renard poured the colorless, odorless liquid into her tea and slipped the empty vial back into his pocket.

"What'd you get me?" Jake picked up her tea. It was a little sweet, but it was certainly tasty.

"Thai Basil Chicken. Trust me. It's their best dish."

"You're the expert." Jake had never been one for exotic meals. But the tiger had insisted.

Halfway through the meal, Jake started to feel funny. As if she'd been drinking, but she knew she hadn't. Then she heard the pager in her purse start to buzz and hum. "Oh crud," she hissed and fumbled for it. "I have to go."

The tiger sighed and called for the check. Jake tried to stand up, but her legs felt like jelly. Everything was spinning. "What... what's wrong with me?"

"Oh my. Jacquelyn, darling are you alright?" Renard kept himself from grinning.

"I... I don't know... I feel so strange.... will you drive me home?"

"Certainly." He paid their bill and led her out to his car.  
Jake remembered getting in the car. But she didn't remember getting out of the car. And she certainly didn't recognize the bed she was laying on. "Chance?" She still felt weak but her vision was even.

"You're in my apartment. You fainted." Renard looked hungrily down at the she-kat on his duvet.

Jake immediately regretted the short skirt and v-neck blouse.

"I have to get home. My pager..."

"You're roommate can handle a few tows on his own." He hovered above her. "You've gotten away from me once. I'm getting what I want."

Jake didn't ever remember feeling this weak. When she tried to get up, he pushed her back down and slapped her with the back of his paw, a large gold ring with a stylized eagle cut deep into her cheek. She stared up at him in shock. "You... you drugged me didn't you?"

He grinned deviously. "I wouldn't suggest running if I were you. You won't get very far."

"Well how about fighting then?" Jake lunged at the tiger. Her movements were sluggish, however. He grabbed a hold of her wrists and flung her back to the bed. His claws came out and he lashed at her skirt, ripping it and scratching into her flesh. Using one claw, he slit the front of her blouse, allowing her breasts to spill out. "You are quite a magnificent piece of flesh."

Jake tried to wriggle away but he caught her by the throat and pinned her down. "Wait..." She choked. There was no use fighting. "You win... just... just don't kill me..."

The tiger laughed. "I had no intentions of killing you my dear. I enjoy the hunt far more than the hunted."

* * *

Shiloh was watching the news. The city was under attack again. She could feel the aftershock of explosions in her high rise apartment. The Metallikats of course. It made her feel good, although a bit scared, to watch her brother save the day. Her phone started ringing. She jumped in shock. It was nearly four in the morning. She didn't recognize the number. "Hello?" Shiloh forced irritation into her voice.

"Sh... Shiloh?"

"Who is this?" She couldn't place the voice. It sounded familiar, but it was shaky.

"It... it's Jacquelyn."

She gasped. "What are you doing? You aren't with Chance? Where are you?" She heard traffic in the background.

"I need your help."

When Shiloh arrived at the apartment complex in the lower east end of MKC, it was nearly 6am. Traffic was backed up from the damage of the battle. She drove around the building until she saw a figure curled up beneath an awning. "What the hell happened?" She stormed out of the car. "How could you just leave Chance to do both your jobs like that! I..." Shiloh paused suddenly, noting the dried blood on Jake's face and the rips in her clothing. "Where is he?" The familiar Furlong temper quickly flooded to the surface.

"He's gone," Jake lied.

"Please tell me he didn't..."  
"Nothing happened," Jake looked at her feet. "Can we just get go?"

"Yeah." She pulled Jake to her feet.

The cuts in her thigh opened and throbbed. Jake was unable to check the hiss of pain. Shiloh looked down at the shredded remains of her skirt. "Are you certain nothing happened?"

"Just drop it, Shiloh." Jake hissed. "I don't want to talk about it."

Shiloh brought Jake to her apartment. "You go ahead and take a shower. I'll get you some clothes." Jake didn't hesitate. As soon as she heard the water come on, Shiloh grabbed her phone.

"Yeah?" Chance snarled into the receiver. He wasn't a happy camper.

"You better get over here." Shiloh said quietly.

"Why?" Chance growled. He was trying to figure out how to track the GPS chip in Jake's pager.

"Because Jake's here. And I think something really bad happened to her."

* * *

Jake scrubbed herself forcefully. She felt dirty. The cut on her face and the ones on her thigh burned under the hot spray and the soap. She washed until her skin was red and irritated beneath her fur. The hot water started to turn cool and she slid down in the tub until she was sitting. She pulled her knees up and buried her head.

"Where is she?" Chance looked positively frantic when Shiloh let him in. The worried look on her face helped dissolve his anger, but not the tight not of fear that had been in the pit of his stomach since he'd tried to page him.

"In the shower. She's been in there for nearly an hour, Chance." Shiloh huffed. "I don't know what to do."

"Do you know what happened?" Chance kept the growl out of his voice.

"Vaguely. She said nothing happened and then she said she didn't want to talk about it. Her face is cut and her leg was bleeding. Chance her clothes were all torn. I think..."

He didn't give her a chance to finish before he stormed past her and down the hallway. He paused outside the bathroom door to reign in his anger before quietly opening the door.

"Leave me alone, Shiloh." Jake whimpered into her knees.

"Let me see."

She jerked her head up at the deep voice behind the shower curtain. Chance slowly pulled back the thick plastic and knelt down beside the tub. "Holy..." His breath caught in his throat. Jake's cheek was swollen and bruised. The water had washed away the blood, leaving an angry red gash. She turned her head and looked down at the water swirling around the drain. "Sorry I wasn't there." She whispered, unable to look him in the eyes. This was exactly the kind of thing he had tried to warn her about. But she had wanted to have her fun. 'Fun indeed,' she thought, wishing the water was still hot. She still felt immensely filthy.

Chance didn't respond to her meek apology. He simply hooked his paw under her chin and tilted her head. Wincing as he made out the shape of an eagle. He could almost visualize a heavy paw, backhanding her sharply across the face. Jake kept her eyes shut, too ashamed to look at Chance. She felt his paw leave her face and heard the squeaking of the faucet as he turned off the water.

"Come on," he said softly.

Jake looked up slowly. He was holding out a large fluffy towel. Still feeling weak from whatever he'd given her and tired, she stood up, wincing as the movement pulled at the wounds on her thigh. Chance noted the pain on her face and tracked down the wound immediately. Jake took the towel from his paws and wrapped it around her body. "Thanks," she mumbled and clumsily stepped out of the tub.

"Let me take a look at it." Chance worried.

"I'm fine, Chance." Jake pushed passed him and out the door.

"I put some clothes for you on my bed. You'll have to go commando though." Shiloh cut Chance off before he could follow her.

"Thanks, Shi," she ducked her head before slipping into her room. With a heavy sigh, she let the towel slip down to her feet. Shiloh had left her a pair of sweats and a long sleeved shirt from MKC University. Comfortable clothing. The girl had impeccable foresight. Renard had been none too gentle, despite her reluctantly submitting herself to him. Her only solace was that he'd worn protection. 'Probably to cover up the evidence,' she grumbled.

"What's this guys name?" Chance was furious.

"All I know is his first name is Renard." Shiloh poured a cup of coffee. "This is my fault," she sat down at the bar in her kitchen and inhaled the delicious aroma. "I'm the one who told her she should go out with him in the first place. Then after I talked to you, I tried to talk her out of it but she's just as stubborn as she was before when, you know, she was Jake."

"You work for the D.A. You went to law school, Shi. Legally, what can we do?" Chance sat down beside her.

"Nothing if we don't know what happened."

"She was raped."

"And she's not going to admit to it." Shiloh argued.

"She looks like someone beat the shit out of her!" Chance seethed.

Jake leaned against the wall in the hallway listening to their exchange. She shivered and slid down to the floor. 'Rape' was such a strong word. And that wasn't what had happened. Sure he'd drugged her and hurt her, but in the end, he didn't really force it on her because she'd told him she'd let him. It's not like she was bound and gagged. After listening to them talk about her for several minutes, she forced herself to stand.

"Can we just go home?" Jake gave Chance a pleading look.

"What happened?" Chance demanded.

"Nothing," Jake looked down at her feet.

"That's bullshit!" Chance snarled.

Jake winced. Then blushed. Chance would never hit her, her nerves were just a little jumpy. "I... I really don't want to talk about it."

Chance's expression softened and he sighed. Her long wet hair was soaking through her shirt. It was chilly outside. He slid off his leather jacket and put it around her arms. He looked at Shiloh. "Thanks for finding her."

Shiloh simply nodded and finished her cup of coffee. It was Saturday. She wouldn't be needed at the office.

* * *

Chance shot Jake several concerned looks on the way home. She was unnervingly quiet. He'd turned on the heat the moment they'd gotten in the truck. By now, her shivering had abated, but she remained curled up in his large jacket. "You can tell me, you know. I'm not going to flip out. I swear."

Jake shot him a look. "Yeah right," she mumbled.

"It must've been pretty bad for you to think that you can't trust me." Chance huffed.

"I... I do trust you... it's just... you could've been killed. I shouldn't have gone out knowing you might not have back up." She looked out the window.

"I don't think you would've left me if you had a choice."

Jake winced. No. She didn't have a choice. She remained silent, feeling tears well up in her eyes.

"You didn't have a choice, did you? What'd he do? Drug you?" He pried.

Jake's eyes widened slightly, allowing a few of the tears to slip down her cheeks. "I... I heard the pager go off. I told him I had to leave..."

"Is that when he hit you?"

She shook her head.

"Where were you when the pager went off?" Chance figured he'd take what details she would give him and try to piece it together on his own.

"At... at a restaurant."

"Okay, where were you when he hit you?"

"His apartment."

"So you're pager went off and you told him to take you back to his place?" Chance twitched an ear.

Jake shook her head.

"What did you tell him?"

"That I had to leave."

"Why'd you go back to his place?"

"I..." Jake stopped. She didn't have an answer to this. She didn't even remember anything after getting in his car.

"I told him to take me home," she said quietly.

"So what'd he do? Lock the doors and not let you out?"

"No... I... I don't think so... he could have..."

At this point, Chance was convinced she'd been drugged. "Did you leave him alone at the restaurant?"

She sniffled and wiped her eyes as she nodded.

"So he slipped something most likely in you drink. Then the pager went off. You told him you wanted to leave but you don't know why you went back to his place?"

She was silent.

"You don't know why because you don't remember." Chance had to bite the inside of his cheek. "I told you tigers were bad news."

"I got it, Chance." She hissed. "You were right. I was wrong. Can we just drop it?"

"No. We aren't gonna just drop it. Do you have any idea how lucky you are? Must girls wind up dead or missing after getting raped."

"I wasn't raped."

"Then what happened?"

"He didn't rape me." She said again.

"So what? He just got off on hitting you and cutting you up?" Chance sounded as disbelieving as he looked.

"I didn't say we didn't have sex..." She focused on the passing scenery.

"So you willingly had sex with someone that drugged you and beat you up?"

'Well when you put it like that,' she thought. She was silent for a moment. "Yes."

"Why are you lying?"

"I'm not lying." She snapped. "Okay. You're right, he drugged me and I don't remember going to his place but I sure as hell woke up there. I tried to leave and he hit me. I could've taken him... I just... I was moving so slow. I was just so... so weak..." She trailed off.

"So you tried to fight back, but you couldn't because he drugged you. You let him do what he wanted for the sake of not getting hurt anymore than you already had."

Jake sighed and looked down at her lap.

"He still forced you into it. It's still rape."

"It's not the same." She said as they pulled into the salvage yard.

Chance watched her slide out of the cab of the truck and go inside the garage. She was walking a little weird and it made his blood boil.

* * *

Jake slept through Saturday. And didn't bother getting out of bed most of Sunday. Chance had tried. He'd brought her food but she refused to eat. Then he tried coaxing her out by telling her there was a Litterbin marathon on the comedy network. She simply buried her face in her pillow and ignored him. Finally, when Chance asked if she wanted to go see Kats Of The Undead in 3D, she agreed. Mostly because she was tired of him bothering her.

She didn't bother taking a shower. And she pulled on a pair of loose fitted jeans and a long sleeved shirt. Chance was waiting for her in the kitchen, holding out her jacket and helmet.

"We're taking your bike?" She arched her eyebrow.

"Yeah well. It's not as chilly today. I'd like to get a few more rides in before it gets too cold."

She sighed and took her helmet, hoping he wouldn't take one of his shortcuts with her riding bitch.

Chance couldn't help but grin at the feel of her arms wrapped around his midsection. He was going faster than necessary, but it made her feel like she had to hang on. And he really enjoyed how her body felt hugged against his. She stiffened as he pulled into a burger joint.

"This doesn't look like the theater." Jake glared at him.

"I figured we'd grab a bite to eat first. You haven't eaten in. And I'm starving." He shrugged.

She sighed and removed her helmet. Her face hurt, and she'd tried to bandage the wound, but only made it that much more noticeable.

"So what's the deal, Jac?" Chance asked after the waitress brought them their food.

"What's the deal with what?" She asked as she picked the onions off her burger. What was the point in asking to leave something off if they weren't going to listen?

"You know, you and Shiloh going out all the time. The sex can't really be that awesome."

Jake stared at Chance for a moment. She wanted to say that it was. So far, she'd been disappointed. And then some. Of course, Chance had tipped the odds in his favor. He was amazing and compared to him, everyone else fell short. In more ways than one.

"I dunno," she said quietly. "It's just... well you know I never went out much before. And now, it's like I don't even have to try."

"If you were still Jake and you met some girl like you, you'd call her a slut and wouldn't touch her." Chance pointed out. "And what happens when you meet someone and you actually want, you know, a normal relationship?"

"They'd have to be blind and deaf for it to work." Jake replied.

"Or they could already know who you are." Chance said nonchalantly.

"That means you. And you just called me a slut..." She huffed, smirking. The thought brought those butterflies back.

"You're not a slut."

"Then why'd you say it?"  
"I didn't call you a slut. I said... oh never mind." Chance shook his head. "You ready to go before we miss our movie?"

* * *

Jake threw her paper 3D glasses in the trash on their way out of the movie. There was nothing like senseless gore and cheesy one liners to lift one's spirits.

"Hey I'll be right back." Chance nodded his head towards the restroom. He'd downed an entire extra large soda.

Jake sighed and leaned against the wall outside.

"Totally not worth the 9 bucks." A voice said beside her.

Jake looked up. "I dunno. I kind of liked it."

"It was campy."

"It's supposed to be. It's a zombie movie." She rolled her eyes, smiling at the tall, skinny calico.

"I suppose. You here alone? You wanna go grab some coffee or something?"

"I... uh..."

"Hey babe, you ready to go?" Chance seemed to materialize in front of her.

Jake gave the stranger an apologetic smile as Chance put his arm around her and led her towards the exit.

"I was about to say that I was waiting for you." She said once they were outside.

"Sure. I was just, you know, stacking the deck."

"Uh huh." She slipped her helmet on and got on the motorcycle behind him.

* * *

"Since when do you need a friggin' portfolio to work on someone's car?" Jake snapped after a customer, who'd refused to let her work on his car, left. She was really getting tired of this sort of thing. "I think it's your tits." Chance said.

"What the hell does that have to do with whether I can do the job or not?" She was irritated.

"A tom sees a she-kat with a nice rack and assumes that she doesn't have any brains. And I'm gonna be honest, J. Most chicks I've met with your kind of knockers got nothing but air between their ears."

"Well, gee, thanks. That makes me feel tons better." She snipped and sat down at the desk to catch up their books and file some invoices.

"It should. You're a thousand times smarter than the average hottie." Chance was under the hood of Miss Briggs' car. Again.

"Only a thousand?" She chuckled. "Flattery won't get you anywhere with me, Furlong?"

"What about flowers and candy?"  
"I have allergies. And you don't want to ruin this figure, do you?"

"If you get fat then you're stuck with me."

"How do you figure?" She looked up from her paperwork.

"Well, you don't let anyone get close enough to like you for your personality. The only ones who really know you for you are me and Shiloh. And I don't see you and Shiloh shackin' up any time soon."

"You got that right," She laughed.

"So what does it take, then, to get the beautiful Miss Jacquelyn interested in her best friend?" He asked.

Jake smirked and thought about it. "Hmm," she leaned back in the squeaky desk chair and gave Chance a deep, thoughtful look. "Well let's see. He's got to be strong and muscular. None of those scrawny kats."

Chance grinned and flexed. "Hey. Wait a minute. Weren't _you_ a scrawny kat?"

Jake grinned back at him, admiring his guns. "Yeah well, now I see why I didn't get the girls and you did. At first glance, who cares if I can build a radio out of a milk can, a paper clip and a pencil?"

"Can you really do that?" Chance looked serious.

Jake laughed. "No. That would be pretty cool, huh?"

"So that's it, then. Muscles?" Chance shrugged. "I got that and then some."

"He'd have to be compassionate too." Jake studied him. Suddenly, she looked somewhat shocked and went back to work.

"What?"

"Nothing?" Her cheeks reddened beneath her fur.

"Come on." Chance pleaded. "Is it the muscles? Are they too much for ya?"

"You wish," Jake's eyes darted in his direction once more. "Kat or She-kat. I could still take you."

"A sparring match then. We haven't had one since the accident."

"What are the stakes?"

Chance thought for a minute. "Loser makes dinner."

"Alright. Winner chooses what we watch after dinner." Jake added.

Chance closed up the shop and Jake went down to the hangar.

She couldn't seem to get her Gi to fit right. This was the first time she'd worn it since turning into a girl. With a sigh, she settled for a pair of tight workout pants and a tank top that hugged her so tight you could see the outline of her sports bra.

Chance fit into his Gi just fine. He let her strike first. And she surprised him with making an upper body attack rather than a lower. He stumbled backwards but regained his concentration and blocked her moves. He caught her arms and twisted them. She thrust her body upwards, flipping over him and untangled herself from his grasp. Then she swept his legs out from under him, sending him to the mat.

Chance pushed himself up and went for a wrestling move, wrapping his arms around her midsection and dropping her down to the mat. She was on her back and he was on top of her. He grinned. Her cheeks flushed. She worked a leg out and wrapped it around his hips. Tightly gripping him, she threw her body so that he was the one on his back. She met his sparkling blue eyes and felt suddenly paralyzed by what she saw in them. Pure, undiluted affection. Her mind drifted to their conversation. "What would it take to get me interested in you?" She sounded disoriented.

"Bingo." Chance remained on his back, staring back up at her. Her hair was coming loose from it's band. And the light hit it, giving her an ethereal glow. Like a halo.

"I... I don't understand..."

Chance reached up and pushed a strand of hair back. "It kills me to watch you go out all the time. I thought... I thought that if I could just get you in bed then I'd be able to get you out of my mind, but it only made it worse. This is crazy. I know it's crazy, but..." he sighed. "I love you and I don't know what to do about it."

Jake looked away, her eyes darting to the floor beside his head. "Do you feel funny? You know, like someone punched you in the gut every time you look at me? Or like you can't breathe for a second?"

Chance nodded.

Sex was one thing. Jake bit her lip. But love was another thing altogether. It wasn't quantifiable. Sex was a need. A desire caused by the release of pheromones and hormones. Chemical reactions. But love... is also a chemical reaction. "I think... Chance... why didn't you say something before... I can't..." She felt dizzy and she slid off of him.

"Are you alright?" Chance was worried.

Jake felt tears burn her eyes. He was inches from her face. She could smell his shampoo. And his breath was warm. And his eyes were just so pleading. She steeled herself. Commanded her heart to stop its palpitations. And kissed him.

Chance was positive he'd said too much. Then he had her lips against his and he swore he could feel her heart beating. Or maybe that was his. He pulled her back onto his lap so that she was straddling him again.

"I love you too," she whispered into his mouth. "I just... didn't realize it until now. I'm sorry."

Chance pulled back. "For what?"

"For making you put up with me. For going a long with Shiloh to all those parties and hooking up with all those strange guys. It was just so good with you and I thought it was that good with everyone else but it wasn't. I had no idea what I was doing. And then... then... that stupid tiger... and..." She was sobbing now.

Chance frowned and wrapped his arms around her.

"I'm so sorry."

"It... it's okay. I swear." He let her bury her face in his chest and cry, all the while combing his paw through her hair. The sparring session was definitely over. "What do you say we call this a draw and go upstairs?"

She nodded and pushed herself off of him.

"Why don't you go wash the sweat off? I'll make us something to eat." Chance gently caressed her cheek with his paw.

Jake nodded. She felt numb.

* * *

She'd only just stepped under the water when the curtain was pulled open. Chance quickly shucked his clothing and climbed in with her, pressing her against the wall of the shower. "Sorry," he purred into her throat. "I just needed to touch you again." He lifted her legs and wrapped them around him as he slid inside her. She still felt as tight as she had that one time. He rolled his eyes back. "This isn't going to take long." He claimed her lips in a sloppy kiss. "I swear I'll.... make it up to you... later..."

Jake was too stunned by his sudden appearance in the shower and he desperate need that she didn't seem at all disappointed when he suddenly slipped out of her and came against her leg. He kissed her again and apologized and then he was gone. She stood still until the water went cold. The chill reminded her she need to wash off.

Feeling dazed and still wet, despite the towel wrapped around her, she walked into the kitchen. Chance was standing by the sink with one of his paws scratching the back of his head. "I don't know what to make for dinner."

"We can worry about it later," she looked at him with lusty eyes. "You owe me for that little hit and run stunt you just pulled." She dropped the towel.

Chance couldn't help the growl of excitement he made as he pinned her to the kitchen table, frantically pushing objects to the floor. It slammed against the wall loudly.

"I hope you don't have plans," He nipped at her ear. "Because this might just take all night."

_**Alright. Here's a second installment. Hope you enjoyed it.**_

_**NK**_


	3. Chapter 3

_**More in the Gender Bender line. Is it wrong that I'm disturbing myself a little with this story?**_

_**Nyte Kat**_

* * *

Razor landed on her back with a loud 'thud' and struggled to regain her balance. "T-Bone!" She shouted and darted after the strange mutant creature dragging her partner up the stairs. It had come out of the sky. They were certain it was the work of the Pastmaster, but there had been no sign of the little demon. Instead, they'd been trying to apprehend a very angry, very strong mutant capable of destroying anything, including half the city, for no apparent reason.

T-Bone struggled against the vice grip around his throat. 'And Razor thinks I'm strong...' he thought, finally feeling steady enough to try to shoot it. He used his Glovatrix and fired a few rounds of cement into its face. It snarled and let him go before clawing at its eyes. T-Bone picked up an office chair and nailed it over the head. Blindly, it swung its arms, launching a large computer monitor towards the door. Just as Razor burst through it.

She gasped and ducked. Razor fired a couple of bolo ropes, trying to secure its arms. T-Bone did the same, reinforcing Razor's attack.

It snarled and the ropes started to fray under its strength.

"We gotta do something to take it out." T-Bone backed away.

"You want me to kill it or just sedate it?" Razor was just as wide eyed. All she had left were a few mini scramblers and a buzz saw.

"At this point, dead is better than nothing."

Razor sighed and fired the mini scrambler at its head. It twitched beneath the shock but didn't go down. "Crud," she hissed and fired the second one before the first could stop working. "Uh... double crud," she backed up when it still merely trembled beneath the high voltage. "Don't say I didn't try." She fired the buzz saw. In a scene fit for a horror movie, the blade sliced through the mutant's neck. Its head lolled off and blood gushed like fountain from the severed parts.

"Ick," Razor choked, stumbling backwards after getting a face full of blood.

"Not a good look on you, Razor." T-Bone gave his partner a sympathetic look.

She spat a mouthful of blood that clearly wasn't hers onto the floor and shivered. "Doesn't taste all that great either."

They both looked at each other at the sound of the Enforcer chopper approaching. "Think that's our cue to get the hell out of dodge." T-Bone nodded towards the stairs.

* * *

Jake brushed her teeth four times and she still felt like she had a mouthful of mutant blood. That was after she'd washed her face and her hair, and anything else. Chance knocked on the door frame and poked his head in. "You almost done?"

She gave him a withering look and put more toothpaste on her toothbrush.

"Come on. You've been in here for two hours."

"You didn't get showered in blood." Jake said around her toothbrush.

"It wasn't that bad. Now hurry up. We're going to be late for Shiloh's Christmas party."

"It's not her party. She's just bringing us along." Jake rinsed out her mouth.

"Either way, we're going to be late. And how often do we get to get all dressed up and stuff?"

"Fine. Shower's all yours." She bumped him with her hip on her way out the door.

Jake hadn't exactly been sleeping in her room a lot in the last two months, so it had pretty much turned into a closet. She turned on the light and looked at the dress Shiloh had picked out for her. "This is a pretty formal gig. Lot's of important kats are going to be there. You two need to look nice," she said. She and Chance hadn't really wanted to go, but she'd insisted. She didn't want to be stuck with a bunch of snobby politicians and have no one to talk to. "Besides," she'd said. "You two are pretty much the city's protectors. Whether they know it or not, you should be there."

So it was a mission. Keep Shiloh occupied and try to gain intel on what's going on with the city. "Maybe someone will know where that mutant came from," Jake slid on a pair of black lace panties and a matching bra. Then she slipped into the red silk number that barely covered her bosom and was just long enough to be acceptable in public. She was just putting on the matching strappy heels when she heard the shower stop in the bathroom. She smirked. Chance was going to die when he saw her dress.

There was a knock on the door.

"I got it!" Jake yelled before Chance went running around in a towel. Not that she minded. She walked to the kitchen, her heels clacking against the old tile. Peeking out the small window, she saw Shiloh.

"I knew that would look stunning on you, Jac." Shiloh marveled at her friend's figure in the eye-catching ensemble.

Shiloh, on the other hand, had gone with a more subdued royal blue. It was flowy and slimming.

"You don't look half bad either."

"Where's my brother? He isn't ready to go yet? I figured you two would be ready when I got here."

"We would've been if Jackie here didn't spaz out over a little blood on her face. Wow." He paused and gave Jake a long once over. "Wow," he repeated.

"It wasn't a little bit of blood," Jake corrected. "Are you ready to go?"

"Yeah but we have to give Shiloh her present first."

Jake narrowed her eyes. "I thought we were going to wait until Christmas."

"I got the feeling we won't have time." Chance shrugged. "Why don't you go grab it?"

Jake gave Chance a curious look but went back down the hall to their bedroom.

"You got it?" Chance asked his sister quietly.

"Yep." Shiloh grinned and pulled the long velvet box out of her purse. Then she handed him a room key. "I know you're taking her out of town for the holiday but I couldn't think of what else to get you two. I figured an evening in a very nice hotel suite would be a good end to a glamorous night."

"Thanks," he gave his sister a kiss on the cheek and put the key card in his pocket. Jake came back down the hall with an envelope in her paw. Her hips swayed as she hurried, grabbing her coat on the way. "I just saw the time." She handed Shiloh the envelope. "It's not much, but you're really hard to shop for."

Shiloh grinned as she tore open the envelope. It was a gift card to a day spa. "You're _so_ coming with me." She hugged Jake and then her brother. "No let's go before we're more than fashionably late."

Shiloh turned on her heel and went down the stairs.

Jake was about to slip on her coat.

"Hang on. You're not ready yet." Chance took her coat from her.

"What are you talking about?" She looked around. She had her purse and that had her keys and everything.

"You forgot this." He held up a long black velvet box and opened it.

If she would've been eating something or drinking, she'd have choked. "Chance... I... holy...." She stared at the stunning diamond necklace with intermittent beautiful polished yellow topaz.

Chance grinned as he took it out of the box and put it around her neck. It was the length of a choker and sparkled in the kitchen light. It set off her outfit just right. And the yellow topaz matched her eyes. "Now we can go." He kissed her lips and picked up her coat, holding it open so she could slip her arms into it.

She was still too stunned to say anything so she let Chance take her paw and lead her down the stairs.

* * *

It was odd to brush shoulders with so many important figures. Jake counted the kats she knew. The mayor was there, of course. Callie was by his side ready to switch his champagne for something non alcoholic so that he didn't do anything to ruin his chances for re-election. There were several Enforcers, in and out of uniform. Dressed to the nines were the ladies. The toms were in dress blues.

"Shiloh?" A frantic male voice came from within the crowds. "Shi? Where is that girl? She was supposed to be here ten minutes ago! Oh, excuse me miss...." A short, boxy Maine Coon in a very expensive silk tuxedo paused just before running into Jake. He was eye level with her bust line and had to force his eyes upwards. "I'm very sorry. I was just looking for my assistant. Oh! Shiloh! There you are."

"Mr. Powders," Shiloh grinned. "Sorry I'm late. This is my brother Chance and his girlfriend Jacquelyn."

"Well, I must say, you are quite beautiful." Milo Powders held out his paw to the beautiful she-kat he'd nearly ran into. "Milo Powders, Megakat City District Attorney." He turned his attention to Chance and smiled. "And there is no mistaking your relationship to Shiloh. You have no idea what a lifesaver she is. Speaking of which, I need you to come with me. It was lovely meeting the both of you. These soirees are always something to remember." With that, he took Shiloh's wrist and pulled her through the groups of expensively dressed kats and she-kats.

"You know, all this time, I really had the feeling she was overplaying her position." Jake looked at Chance.

"Hardly." He snorted. An usher walked by with a tray of champagne glasses. He took two and handed one to his beautiful date. "You really do look amazing."

Jake blushed.

* * *

"What is _he_ doing here?" Lt. Commander Steele couldn't believe his eyes when he'd seen the former Enforcer walk in.

"What is who doing here?" Felina shifted her dress awkwardly. She really didn't feel right in formal attire.

"Furlong. You remember. That hotshot pilot that ruined Enforcer headquarters. I thought he was stripped of his rank."

Felina looked around. "He was. So what? I swear, Steele. You can't enjoy anything can you? Unless my uncle's around for you to suck up."

"Neither of you will have a position to suck up from if you don't do what you're here to do." Commander Feral hissed from behind his niece and the louse that would do anything for his job. The two Lt. Commanders scattered and he looked around. His posture straightened as he noticed the former pilot. "What's _he_ doing here?" He grumbled and started towards the kat.

* * *

Chance kissed Jake softly on the nose. "I'll be right back." Jake turned around as he walked off and started to work her way around, hoping to catch anyone talking about the incident with the mutant. When she came face to chest with a large kat in uniform, she looked up suddenly.

Commander Feral looked down at the cinnamon furred she-kat in a red dress. He arched an eyebrow. She looked familiar. Where had Furlong gone?

"Excuse me," Jake looked up at the commander and started to move around him.

He grabbed her shoulder gently. "Do I know you?"

"No. I don't think so." She looked around. Where was Chance?

"What's your name?"

"Jacquelyn. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm with someone. I just have to find him."

"You're with Furlong, aren't you?"

She smiled coyly. "You must be Commander Feral. I've heard _so_ much about you."

"What is he doing here?"

"Why don't you ask him yourself?" She gave Chance a nervous smile. "Chance. Honey, this kat was just asking about you."

"I don't recall seeing your name on the guest list." He sneered.

"That's because it wasn't. We were invited by my sister." Chance crossed his arms over his chest.

"I'm sorry. I don't see how it's any of your business why we're here." Jake intervened. "If you have an issue with our presence, you can take it up with Shiloh Furlong. She's with Milo Powders."

Feral looked flustered. He grumbled and walked off.

"Well that was completely unnecessa...." Chance was cut off by Jake's paw being placed softly over his mouth. Her ears twitched backwards.

"The entire experiment was a mistake." She heard. "We've got scientists working right now to close the dimensional gap."

"Dimensional gap..." Jake mouthed.

"It's a good thing the Swat Kats took the mutant out. If there are more, we need to take extra caution to make sure they don't come through before we can figure out how to seal it up."

She sensed them moving in her direction and quickly pulled Chance into a passionate kiss to disguise her eaves dropping.

"It's a gateway problem. The amount of power it took to open the gateway fried a lot of our components. It's going to take a while to repair the damage."

"In the meantime," another voice said. "We've got Enforcers watching the gateway."

The moved out of earshot. Jake sighed as she pulled back from Chance. He'd been paying attention to the same thing she was until the kiss. From there, his brain went completely south. "Well at least no one's calling us killers," she mused.

Chance made a pathetic whimpering sound as she moved away from him. She turned back and smiled. "Are you coming with me or not?" She held out her paw.

Chance grasped it firmly and let her pull him through the crowd. There were tables along the outside of the ballroom. And a buffet set up at one wall. He felt his stomach growl. Jake paused. "You can get something to eat if you want."

Chance thought about the key card in his pocket. More than likely, Shiloh had arranged room service. "Nah. What if someone poisoned the food to kill the mayor?"

"You've been watching CSI again, haven't you?" Jake led him over to a table and she sat down. "Sorry. These heels are killing me." She was thoughtful for a moment. "How do you suppose one would close a dimensional portal?"

Chance's eyes widened. "You aren't seriously expecting me to answer that, are you? Because, that's a little out of my territory."

"I was more or less asking myself. It's out of my territory too. Looks like the Pastmaster doesn't have anything to do with this one after all."

"You know. We're supposed to be having fun. Not working." Chance sighed. Once Jake sank her teeth into something, it was hard to get her to let it go. He snagged a couple more glasses of the bubbly and handed one to her. "There will be plenty of time for you to figure this out later. Besides, you heard those kats. There's Enforcers watching over it."

She arched an eyebrow and sipped her drink. "And here I thought you weren't paying attention."

"Oh it was hard." He purred. "_Really_ hard actually."

Jake flushed and felt his paw on her thigh. "You do realize we're in a public place surrounded by very important kats."

"And I bet not one of them knows how to have a good time." He gently kissed her lips and caught the sound of the string quartet. "Do you want to dance?"

"Do I what?" Jake looked at her suddenly empty champagne flute. "I didn't take you for the classical music kind of kat."

"Yeah well, we all have our secrets." He winked.

"In any case," she looked down. "I... well... Shiloh insisted I learned how to pop, lock and drop it but that's the extent of my sweet dance moves."

"You can follow my lead."

She arched an eyebrow. "Alright."

He held out his paw and pulled her to her feet.

Jake had to admit, she was surprised to learn that the bulky, muscular tabby could tango. And he wasn't that bad a lead. She was sure she didn't make to much of a fool of herself. When he guided her thigh up to his hip and the music stopped with her body pressed so provocatively against his, she was positive the alcohol had gone to her head.

"I think..." She panted. "Now would be a good time to leave."

"I couldn't agree more." He purred into her ear. "We need to find Shiloh first."

"Right," Jake agreed, remembering they'd come in her car.

Chance pulled Jake through the crowd. He paused when he saw his sister talking to the deputy mayor in a hushed tone. He cleared his throat.

"Oh. Chance! Callie this is my brother."

"I know you." Callie smiled. "Hello Jacquelyn."

"Jackie." Jake said, smiling. "It's good to meet you again."

"How's your brother?" Callie sounded sincere in her concern.

Jake looked uncomfortable. "I... I'd rather not talk about it."

Callie's smile faded. "I'm sorry. Where are my manners? I saw you two dancing out there. I must say, you're pretty flexible. Do you do yoga?"

Jake laughed. "No. I do have a black belt in Jujitsu, though."

"Really?" Callie purred. "Chance, can I steal your date for a minute?"

Chance's eyes widened. Like he could say 'no' to the deputy mayor. "Sure."

Jake awkwardly followed her over to a more quiet spot.

"I know this is hardly the place, but seeing you out there. You're really far to beautiful to be fixing cars. Have you considered teaching your skill? I for one could definitely use a lesson in self defense with all the trouble I seem to get into." Callie was confident in spite of the admission.

"I well... I hadn't thought about it. The thing is... Chance and Jake... well they owe the Enforcers an awful lot of money. With Jake gone, Chance needs all the help he can get. There are several things I'd love to be doing with my life, all of them far more glamorous than being a mechanic."

"Well how much do they owe the Enforcers? And for what?" Callie put her paws on her hips. She really did look magnificent in a long black dress. She was so modest.

"I'm not sure of the exact amount at the moment. It's for the damage they did to the Enforcer building when they were enlisted. When it was just built, I don't know if you remember the crash."

"As a matter of fact, I do." Callie narrowed her eyes. "You know, you're a pretty bright she-kat. What if I offered you a position that paid better than a mechanic's salary? Something that would help put a better dent in your friends' debt?"

"A position doing what, exactly?" Jake shot Chance a nervous look. He was looking back, clearly wondering what they were discussing.

"I don't know if you know this, but most of what the Mayor does is really all my doing. I can't tell you how stressed out I'm getting with this workload. And hearing Milo talk about how wonderful it is having an assistant really makes me jealous. I'd be more than happy to triple whatever you're making now if it means I don't end up in stress therapy before I'm 40."

Jake fought the urge to ask her how old she was. "Could I have some time to think about it? I don't want to just run out on Chance."

"Sure. And you've got my number. How about you give me a call after New Years and give me your answer? That gives you about a week and a half to think it through." Callie looked pleased.

Jake nodded. "That would be great. Thank you so much for the offer, Miss Briggs."

"Please, Jackie. Call me Callie."

The two she-kats returned to their friends. "We all set?" Jake looked at Chance. He nodded.

"Be careful," he said to his sister. "I'll call you in the morning to make sure you made it home alright."

"She's not leaving with us?" Jake's eyes widened. "How are we getting home?"

Chance smiled tiredly at Jake. "Relax. I've got it covered."

They picked up their coats on the way out. It was very cold outside, but it was a beautiful night. A few flurries of snow had started to fall, and downtown MKC was decorated for the approaching holiday. Chance hooked his arm in Jake's and held her paw. "It's just a short walk. I hope your feet aren't too tired."

"Callie offered me a job." Jake said suddenly.

"Seriously?" Chance's eyes widened.

Jake nodded. "She's jealous of the DA having Shiloh around. She offered me the same job. And triple my current salary."

"You said 'yes' right?" Chance was flabbergasted.

"I said I'd think about it. But I really want you to be okay with it if I do. You'd be running the shop alone."

"But with that kind of income, we'd be able to pay Feral off in no time." Chance squeezed Jake's paw.

"Then what? What'll we do when we're paid off? Close up shop and move on? There's a lot more riding on that place than junk cars."

"We get that debt paid, and we could buy the junkyard outright. And with ownership of that place, I bet we could bring in a lot more income." Chance pointed out. "I think you should do it."

"What if something happens to Callie while I'm with her? I can't just run off and and come back as Razor."

"We'll figure something out." He said, pausing in front of the newly built Grand Megakat Hotel. Chance grinned as he held open the door.

"Which one of you came up with this? Was it Shiloh?" Jake blushed.

"Yeah." He went up to the desk. "I have reservations."  
"Name?" The girl at the counter looked bored but tried to sound professional.

"Furlong. We've already got our room key, but I was told I needed to check in."

"You're staying in one of our suites. Room number 742." She was more polite when she realized they were staying in an expensive room. "Your dinner will be there shortly."

* * *

"Wow." Chance blinked as he took in the apartment sized room. There was a sitting room with a large television and a small kitchenette. On the counter was a pair of wine glasses and a card. He picked it up. "You have clothes in the bedroom. There's a bottle of wine in the fridge. Enjoy your evening. Love Shiloh." He smirked. There was a knock at the door.

Chance marveled at the perfectly cooked steak dinner. He opened the bottle of white wine and filled their glasses. After the rich meal and the bottle of wine, it didn't take much for Chance to get Jake out of the dress she wore and into the luxurious bed.

She was quite drunk. And so was Chance. Regardless of the heavy desire between them throughout the evening, they were both just two drowsy to move beyond making out. Sleep claimed them both quickly.

At some point, Jake woke up to the feeling of her lover with one of his paws between her legs. She was laying on her side. So was he. She could feel his arousal pressing into her.

"Mmm," she purred and moved her hips so that he could easily slide himself between them. He nibbled on her back and pulled her hair. His free paw groped her breasts. Chance made little growls of pleasure as he moved in and out of her. She twisted, sliding off of him long enough to turn around and face him. Jake slid back on and rocked him onto his back in one swift motion. She tilted her head back and arched her back, riding him hard.

Chance gripped her butt, adding to the momentum. He let her control the pace for a while and then he flipped her onto her back with her legs over his arms. Her passionate gasps and breaths turned into more vocal whimpers and cries, and he felt her walls begin to clench around him but he kept going. She was shuddering but to taught to return the thrusts. He was hitting her deep and hard when her whimpers changed a piercing moan and he felt a gush of wetness around him. "Oh shit..." Chance swore and jerked himself out just in time to climax onto her abdomen and chest. Jake was still riding out the tremors, the sheets pulled into her fists.

"That was a first," he said, handing her a damp wash rag.

"I'll say," her voice was hoarse.

He helped her wipe off and took the rag back into the bathroom. He slid back into bed beside her and pulled her into his arms. "That was totally worth the wait. I think next time, we should go easy on the wine."

"I agree." Jake tilted her head so that she could claim a kiss. He purred into her mouth and started touching her again. 'They're never getting the smell off these sheets,' she thought as he pulled her onto her knees and got behind her.

* * *

Callie had anxiously been awaiting the call from Jacquelyn. When her phone rang on January 2nd, she'd never been more excited to hear a recognizable voice on the other end. "Wonderful." She purred. "Can you start tomorrow?"

Jake looked nervously at Chance as she hung up the phone. "Well that's done. It can't be any more stressful than being treated like I don't know jack about cars." Not that she felt stressed at all. Chance had surprised her with a weekend at his grandparent's cabin in the mountains for Christmas. His parents had inherited it but rarely used it. Both he and Shiloh had keys. It had been so quiet and peaceful, by the time they left, she wasn't even sure she had it in her to worry about that dimensional portal. Now that they were home, though, it was business as usual. She rubbed her paws together and adjusted the heater in the garage. The doors remained closed this time of year, opened only when vehicles needed to be moved in or out. It didn't help that the whole place was drafty. They'd played in the snow like a couple of kittens on their little retreat. Now, she could hear Chance sniffle every now and then. Her own sinuses seemed a little looser and there was a scratchiness to her throat she hoped would go away. The last thing she needed was to start her new job with a cold. The alarm sounded.

"So much for peace and quiet," Jake mumbled.

* * *

Chance coughed loudly and stroked Jake's head in his lap. She was sound asleep, making a slight wheezing sound as her own cold attacked her lungs. He sighed and changed the channel. They both had had a long day. He'd had several tows and it took a lot longer to sort through the day's junk haul by himself. It didn't help that he'd been coughing and sneezing all day.

Jake looked downright dead on her feet when she got home. "Poor Callie," she'd said. "She just has so much on her plate." That had been the extent of their conversation. Her throat was just so sore. She made them some soup, but barely touched her own. It didn't take long after they curled up on the couch together for her to fall asleep.

He coughed again and stroked her hair. She felt feverish. He knew she wasn't the only one. Chance gently shook her. "Come on babe. Let's go to bed."

She blinked her puffy eyes open and moved stiffly. Jake stretched and started to yawn but it quickly dissolved into a coughing fit that left her holding her head.

Chance put a bottle of cough syrup in her paws and kissed her gently on the temple.

"_You wouldn't hurt a pregnant she-kat, would you?" She gasped, staring up at Dark Kat. _

"_You've drastically misunderstood me if you think I have such remorse." The large purple megalomaniac glowered down at the bleeding, very pregnant girl on the floor, pressed against the wall. He wrapped his paw around her throat and dragged her up to eye level. "I will enjoy this immensely."_

Chance felt the body beside him jerk backwards. He rolled over to find Jake sitting up, gasping for breath and clutching her neck.

"Are you alright?" He sat up slowly. He ran a paw through her hair. It was damp with sweat.

"I'm okay," she choked out. "Just a dream..."

"It was probably the fever. Feels like it broke, though." He caressed her cheek with his paw. "Sure you're okay?"

She nodded and leaned into him, feeling exhausted. "Just a dream," she murmured again.

* * *

"These paper's need to go up to Manx's office. Tell him he needs to sign these today. I don't care what golf tournament he wants to be at." Callie handed Jake a stack of papers she'd just printed out.

"Okay. Well these came up for you from the tax office." Jake gave her several thick yellow envelopes. "Are you hungry?"

"I'm starving," Callie gave her assistant a withering look.

"We should get some Chinese or something." Jake left her office. The mayor's large office was a floor up. She took the stairs.

The mayor was practicing his putt. Jake rolled her eyes. "Excuse me, Mayor Manx. You need to sign these."

"Just set them on my desk, my dear." He winked at the beautiful Miss Jacquelyn.

"It needs to be signed today." She remained standing in front of him.

He missed his putt. "Oh fine," he pouted and took the papers from her and went to his desk. Manx had just picked up a very expensive pen when the window shattered loudly. The mayor screeched pathetically and dove under his desk. Jake ran towards the window and looked out. "Not another one," she hissed. There was another mutant rattling the buildings. She looked at the quivering mayor. "Come on. Let's get out of here." She coaxed him out from under his desk and down the stairs.

"Callie!" She called.

"I'm right here." The deputy mayor nearly collided with her secretary. "I was going to make sure the mayor was safe. I've called the Swat Kats."

The building shook.

"We should probably get out of here." Jake suggested.

"I think that's a good idea." Callie started towards the stairwell.

"You go ahead." Jake headed back towards the office. "I... I need to get my purse..."

Callie didn't hesitate. Jake ran to her office and opened a hidden panel in one of the desk drawers, pulling out her flight suit and mask. Locking the door, she quickly changed. It wasn't very comfortable, but to keep her identity hidden, she'd long ago began tucking her hair up inside her bandanna. She pulled out her pager.

"T-bone," she slipped out of the office. "Are you on your way?"

"Be there in 60 seconds," his voice crackled over the communicator.

"I'll be on the roof." Razor headed for the stairs. The building shook again and debris fell around her. She got on the roof just as the Turbokat came into sight.

"It's another one of those mutants." Razor said, running up to her partner.

"I got a good look at him from the mayor's office. It looked like he was just pulling buildings apart by looking at them."

"That means if he looks at the Turbokat, we're toast."

"I have an idea." She grinned.

"Why do I have the feeling I'm not going to like it?" T-Bone glared at her.

* * *

"I don't like this one bit," T-Bone grumbled, watching Razor zip around on the Cyclotron, keeping the mutant distracted. She was going just slow enough to make it think it almost had her. His gut twisted as he flew the Turbokat behind them, waiting to get a clear shot.

Razor hugged her body low against the motorcycle. "Come on, stay with me." She looked over her shoulder at the mutant. He noticed the huge jet behind him.

"Crud!" She hissed and whipped the motorcycle around. "Alright, if you aren't going to pay attention to me..."

T-Bone no longer had a visual on his partner. With the mutant facing him, he had no choice but to fire.

Razor did the same thing. It was her buzz saws that decapitated the beast.

T-Bone watched in horror as his slid past where the mutant had been standing to where his lover was sitting on the cyclotron.

"Fuck," she hissed. The cyclotron stalled. "What the hell?" She heard the missiles whirring at her in the air and abandoned the motorcycle just as they hit.

"Razor are you okay?" T-Bone's worried voice crackled in her ear.

She looked down at the scrape on her leg where a piece of shrapnel grazed it. "I'm fine. Cyclotron is not." Razor felt a wave of sadness wash over her as she took in the shredded remains of her creation. "I think I better make my exit. You got this?"

"Yeah I got it." He didn't sound happy at all.

* * *

Callie gasped when Jacquelyn stumbled out of the building. "What happened?"

"I don't know..." Jake feigned confusion. "I was coming back down the stairs and the building shook. I fell. I must've blacked out."

Callie looked down at her assistant's torn pants. "You're bleeding!"

Jake was nothing if not thorough. She clutched her purse. Oddly, she did feel a little light headed. 'Must be the adrenaline,' she thought.

"You should go home," Callie sighed. "We aren't going to get any more work done until the Enforcers clear the building."

"Are you okay?" Jake couldn't help but ask.

"Why wouldn't I be? I was out here the whole time. For once, the creeps attacking the city weren't after me."

Jake chuckled. A loud explosion erupted from the sky, causing the she-kats and the mayor to jump. Jake looked up. The large crack in the clouds where the portal had been opened appeared to be closing.

"Are you going to be alright to drive?"

Jake nodded. "I... I guess I'll see you tomorrow." She fished her keys out of her purse and limped towards her car.

* * *

When Jake got home, she found Chance sitting on the office desk instead of buried in some car. She pulled the clip out of her hair and let it fall down her back as she walked up to him.

"Hey," she said softly, brushing her knuckles against his cheek. "Are you okay?"

"I almost killed you." His voice was soft.

"But you didn't. See, I'm okay." She kissed his nose.

Chance cut his eyes down to her leg and then back up to her shimmering amber orbs. "No you're not."

"We've both been hurt dozens of times in combat. What makes this different?" She kissed his cheek.

"You were just my friend and my partner. We're a lot more than friends now. I don't know what I'd do if..." Jake cut his words off with a long kiss to his lips.

"Shh," she purred. "We're both still here. And we're both still fine."

He was shaking. She could feel it. "I don't ever want to lose you," he said into her mouth, wrapping his arms around her.

"Yeah well, that's a two way street, mister," she parted his lips with her tongue.

Chance gasped suddenly. He wanted her right then. No. He _needed_ her. Jake was startled when he picked her up and turned her around, all the while working at the button on her pinstripe dress pants. "Chance... the door's wide open..."  
He didn't say anything, silencing her with a far deeper kiss than she'd expected. She suddenly felt the cool surface of the desktop beneath her exposed rear and the feeling of him pressing into her. Chance committed the feeling of her wrapped around him to memory. If anything ever happened, he wanted to remember the way she felt, inside and out. Jake was positive there would be a wet spot on the desk from what he was doing to her as she felt her muscles seize in pleasure. She gripped the edge of the workspace and moaned.

Chance felt himself start to unravel. Even as the tingling in his toes warned him he should pull out, he kept on going. 'No,' he thought. 'She's mine.' And he slammed into her forcefully, holding her tight as he came hard enough to bring her over the edge again.

Jake felt dazed, numb even. Chance collapsed against her, sweating and breathing hard. Mechanically, she brought a paw up to scratch behind his ears. They remained like that for several moments before common sense set in and they moved from public view.

_

* * *

One Month Later_

'sqoosh'

Jake made a shocked and disturbed face at the feeling of something soft and sticky beneath her foot. She looked at the figure laying in bed, still asleep then at the floor. "What the..." Jake scraped the chocolate off her foot and looked at the trail of little silver wrapped chocolate kisses. She gave Chance another look. Valentine's was a week ago. Shaking her head, she followed the trail. It led to the bathroom. "The bathroom? Really?" Chance really was strange some times. The trail ended right at the edge of the tub beside the shower curtain. Jake pulled it back and looked at the tub. Nothing. Then she looked up. "Oh my God." She whispered and pulled the ring and the note attached to it from the shower head.

"I kiss the ground that you walk on and I shower you with jewels."

She smirked. "Clever."

"I thought so."

Jake snapped her head up and at Chance. "Look I know we're getting really caught up, but I thought we agreed. No extravagant purchases until our debt was paid." She held up the shiny silver diamond ring.

"Relax," he took the ring from her grasp. "This belonged to my grandmother. I just had it cleaned."

"Oh." She closed her eyes in relief. It had looked pretty darn expensive. "But why..." she opened her eyes, finding Chance on his knees in front of her. "Oh..." she repeated again. Her head started to spin.

"I meant what I said when I said I didn't want to lose you." Chance took her paw.

"I don't know what to say," Jake blinked. She really wasn't feeling well.

"Well... you know... yes would be ideal..."

That was when she fainted.

"Or you could just pass out." Chance frowned, catching her before she hit the floor. He was about to move her to somewhere more comfortable when her eyelashes fluttered. "Welcome back." He smiled. "Are you alright?"

"I think so... I just..." Jake's eyes suddenly widened and she scrambled out of her lover's arms and over to the toilet so she could throw up.

Chance was next to her in an instant, pulling her hair back.

"Sorry," she panted. "Must've been what we ate last night..."

"You feel better?" He helped her stand up and handed her her toothbrush.

"Yeah. A little." She eagerly brushed her teeth to rid her mouth of the taste of being sick.

"So... you... ah..." he held out the ring. "Do I get a do over?"

"Yes," she beamed and Chance started to get on his knee again. "No."

"What?" Chance looked startled and disappointed.

"I mean... no you don't have to do it again... and yes... I'll marry you." She blushed.

Chance slid the ring on her finger and hugged her tightly. "Thank you," he sounded tearful and he pulled her in for a kiss.

Jake started to return it at first. Then she made a strange squawking noise into his mouth and jerked away.

Chance winced as she started to heave again. "Are you sure you're alright?"

_**Well I'm sure you can tell where I'm heading with this. I hope you all enjoyed it.**_

_**Nyte Kat**_


	4. Chapter 4

_**Thanks for the reviews I've gotten so far. This is a new genre for me. I usually gravitate towards the angst-ridden, horrible past sort of thing. As usual, happy reading.**_

_**Nyte Kat**_

* * *

"You're a little anemic," the doctor said to Jake. "That would explain the dizziness. And you're six weeks pregnant."

The she-kat blinked up at the doctor from her position on the exam table. "I'm what?" Her voice was calm. Surely she'd heard wrong. Jake had convinced Chance it was just a stomach virus. But after a week of managing to not keep a single thing down, he'd begged her to see a doctor.

"What if it's something serious?" He'd said.

'Oh it's serious, alright.' She thought. 'I'm going to kill him.'

The doctor repeated his assessment of her health.

"Six weeks..." Jake trailed off. She felt sick for an entirely different reason. This certainly changed things.

When Jake got home, Chance was still sorting through what Burke and Murray had dropped off. She hovered on the edge of the mess while he mumbled to himself about which scraps went where. Finally he looked up. "Well?"

"Well what?"

"You gonna tell me what the doctor said?"  
Jake looked sideways. "You know. I was thinking, maybe we could get married this spring. I know you like the fall. I just think the spring would be better."

"You realize it's almost March, right? I mean, that gives us almost no time to plan anything." Chance sounded grumpy. He hadn't slept well the past couple of nights out of worry.

"I know... it's just..."  
"Spit it out, Jackie." He crossed his arms over his chest.

Jake took a deep breath, then exhaled as she spoke. It all came out rushed, almost as if it was just one long word. "Ithinkitwouldbebetterifwegotmarriedbeforethebabycame."

"You think it would what if the huh?" Chance shook his head as he tried to decipher what his fiance had just told him. His eyes widened and he sucked in a huge breath of air. "You're...?"

"Six weeks," she bit her lip.

Chance did a quick calculation in his head. "I... uh... guess the pull out method doesn't always work, then, huh?" He looked like he'd been sucker punched.

"Guess not," Jake replied quietly.

"So I guess we really need to start putting this thing together." Chance stared at the piles of junk near his feet. "Did you have a date in mind?"

"Got any issues with sometime late April, early May?" Jake felt the familiar queasiness stirring in her belly.

Chance shrugged. "No. I've got a good idea for the church, though."

Jake opened her mouth to say something, then closed it.

"What?" He gave her a concerned look.

"I was just thinking of something less... religious." She made a face and moved past Chance towards the garage.

"Less religious? We're talking about a wedding here." He followed her inside and until she slammed the bathroom door in his face. "Jac," he pressed his forehead against the door, frowning as he heard her retching. He put his paw on the doorknob and turned it slowly. Leaning against the door frame, he couldn't help but stare at her. Even on her knees and draped over the commode, he still thought she was beautiful. A smiled tugged at his lips as he watched her throw up. It was their baby making her sick. Their baby.

"Quit staring at me," she whimpered. "This is your fault."

"I don't recall hearing you telling me to stop." Chance sighed. "You don't want to get married in a church?" He realized that they'd never really discussed religion with each other.

Jake shot him a look as she reached up to flush and pushed herself up off the floor. She grabbed her toothbrush and sighed. "I was kind of hoping for something a little more natural."

Chance made a 'huh' sound and looked down at his feet. Jake twitched an ear. "You can watch me puke," she said around her toothbrush and then spat into the sink. "But you can't look at me while I brush my teeth?"

He smirked. "Nah. It's weird." Then he frowned again. "So what's wrong with a church?"

Jake rolled her eyes. "I'm not really a fan of organized religion."  
"You don't believe in God?"

"I didn't say that."

"Getting married is different than going to a service."

"I know that."

"It's supposed to be... spiritual."

"I didn't say I didn't want spiritual. I just..." She rinsed her mouth out. "You know what, never mind. Whatever you want is fine with me." Jake slammed her toothbrush back into the holder with enough force to cause it to wobble for a moment and pushed passed Chance. He watched her go into their bedroom and slam the door loudly. He gave her a few minutes before following her.

* * *

Jake pulled the elastic band out of her hair and let it fall loose. She shook it out with her paws and walked over to the window. There was plastic covering it to help keep the heat in and the cold out. A loose board groaned beneath her feet. She avoided the rough patch that often left splinters in their toes. She was angry. That was the easiest emotion for her to hold onto. Sure she'd expected Chance to want to have a baby, and there had been some fear that their little moment of passion in the garage would've led to this. It pissed her off knowing that it had happened before that. She tried to remember six weeks ago. She had a mental flash of laying naked in each others arms in front of a fireplace and felt tears well up in her eyes. By the time Chance opened the door, she was sitting on the edge of the bed crying like the stupid girl she was. He sat down beside her and wrapped an arm around her trembling shoulders. "If you don't want a church, it's not that big of a deal." He kissed her cheek.

"No..." she sobbed. "Chance... we can't.... have a baby... here..." Jake sniffled loudly. "Look at this place!" She wailed, burying her head in his chest. Then she gasped sharply. "Oh my god. Chance," she met his concerned blue eyes. "We're going to have a baby."

He smiled softly. "Yeah."

"And you're... you're... happy?"

"Well... yeah that... and a million other things." He hugged her tightly.

"... Scared?"

"Oh yeah." He kissed the top of her head. "But we'll be okay. And I'll fix this place up."

"About the wedding," she sounded nervous.

"Babe, we can have whatever kind of wedding you want. Just don't make it too nontraditional, okay?"

She sniffed and nodded.

* * *

Callie came in early to finish a speech. Jacquelyn had outlined key points from a budget meeting so that she wouldn't have to keep reading over the preliminaries. As she searched her paperwork, however, she realized she didn't have her assistant's notes. "I bet they're in her desk," she mumbled and went out of her office into Jacquelyn's slightly smaller one. Aside from the fact that it had smaller windows, it was really just as nice. Callie sighed as she pulled open the first drawer. Jacquelyn was impeccably organized. She shook her head. "Maybe I could get her to help me organize my own files a little better," she said out loud as she thumbed through the file dividers. "Aha," she grinned and pulled out the notes. Her paw grazed something and she paused. Callie looked closely at the switch. "That's odd," she said. Unable to ignore her curiosity, she pressed it. A panel slid open. "Oh my..."

Jake adjusted the strap on her laptop bag and picked up her coffee when the elevator dinged. She'd been instructed to lay off the caffeinated drinks, but coffee seemed to be the only thing she could keep down in the morning. After that, it was touch and go. Why they called it 'morning sickness' was beyond her. It seemed to hang around most of the day, waiting for her to eat something it didn't agree with. Which was mostly everything. The elevator dinged and the doors slid open. Callie seemed to materialize out of no where and plucked the drink from her paws. The deputy mayor dropped it in the trash and replaced it with a bottle of water. "Chance called. Said if I saw you with a Java Place cup in your paws to take it from you."

"But..." Jake watched the precious liquid splatter against the plastic liner.

"We need to talk." She was all business.

Jake gave her drink one last longing look as she followed Callie into her office. She gave her assistant a concerned look. "Why aren't you supposed to be drinking coffee?"

Jake could tell this wasn't what she really had been wanting to talk about. "Well... you know how I was sick last week and I had that appointment on Monday?" It had only been a few days.

"Uh huh," Callie looked truly concerned. It was one of the things both she and Chance liked about the deputy mayor. Miss Briggs was one of those rare kats that actually cared about the kats in her life. And she had a lot of compassion for the ones that weren't.

"Um... well...." Jake looked down at her engagement ring. "I'm... pregnant...."

Callie's eyes widened. "Really? That's... oh gosh... what am I going to do when you can't work?" She turned on her heel and looked out the window. "What about..." She looked back at her assistant. "Jackie, I know about you and Chance."

"What about us?" Jake looked startled. Callie had seen the ring almost immediately. It was hard to miss.

She sighed. "I had to go in your desk to get those notes from that budget meeting... and... well... I saw something I'm pretty sure I wasn't supposed to see. And... well in light of your current... um... situation... I suppose you won't really be involved for some time anyway... I just figured you should know that I know."

Jake blinked. She felt winded. "I need to call Chance."

"Jackie..." Callie grabbed her arm before she could dart out. "I swear I wasn't snooping. And, crud.... please... I just... I mean I was suspicious because every time something comes up, you're gone."

"Callie," Jake gripped her shoulders, surprised at how badly she felt for finding out. "I'm not mad. There's a reason we trust you to call on us. It's just that this is pretty important. I need to tell Chance. In fact, it might be better if he heard it from you instead of over the phone."

"You think we could do it over lunch or something? I'd rather not discuss this here."

Jake visibly paled at the thought of food. "I guess we could do that..."

* * *

Chance had been surprised when Jake asked him to meet them for lunch. Since he knew both girls were cleanly dressed in business casual, he showered and changed. There was no way he was going to look like a mechanic when his fiance looked ravishing and the deputy mayor was probably dressed as professionally as ever. So, it was in a clean pair of jeans and black button up shirt and his leather jacket that he walked into the diner Jake had asked him to meet them at. He spotted Callie in a booth in the back corner, alone.

"Where's Jac?" Chance asked as he removed his jacket and slid into the seat.

Callie made a face. "Ladies room. Maybe lunch was a bad idea."

At that moment, Chance saw his lover come around the corner. Her face looked slightly damp and her eyes a little watery. He stood up and kissed her on the cheek. "Hey babe."

She glowered at him. "You made her take away my coffee."

"It's bad for you." He said simply, motioning for her to sit. He followed suit. "So what'd I do to deserve lunch with the two most beautiful she-kats in the city?"

Jake looked at Callie. "Well... I have some good news and some bad news. Which do you want first?"

"Give me the bad. Unless the good's not that good."

"Eh," Jake made a tottering motion with her paw. "Well..."

Callie looked down at her glass of water. "Chance I know about you and Jackie. I found out this morning. It was purely by accident. She wasn't there and I needed something out of her desk and there was this switch. And I hit it.. and... well I feel just terrible..."

Chance made a strange noise in the back of his throat. Something between a laugh, a choke and a snarl. He looked at Jake and shook his head. "You know, it's funny how many times we mentioned bringing you into this, Callie. I mean, we trusted you to be able to come to us without trying to figure out who we were. I figured, at some point, you'd put two and two together. I don't think either one of us figured we'd just give it away."

"Chance I swear, my lips are sealed. And like I told Jackie earlier, I was starting to suspect something with the way she was always disappearing whenever something happened to the city." Callie seemed almost frightened and more than a little distraught.

He reached across the table and covered one of her finely manicured paws with one of his larger, more massive ones. At the same time, he looked at his partner, lover, and fiance beside him, locking eyes with her long enough to have a silent conversation. "Miss Briggs, Callie... we trust that you will keep our secret. You don't need to worry. Just... ah... well keep in mind that, it's down to just one now." Chance gave Jake an affectionate look. She blushed.

"Are you folks ready to order?" A perky young waitress came up to them.

Chance's look of affection turned to one of concern. "You got anything on this menu that someone suffering from morning sickness can eat?"

The waitress looked thoughtful. "As a matter of fact, I think we do." She followed the tabby's gaze to the thin she-kat beside him and smiled. "What about the two of you?" She looked between Callie and Chance.

* * *

"You can't go in there," Shiloh stopped Jake as she started to walk in the garage.

"Why not?" She wasn't surprised to see Chance's sister there. Though it was a little odd for her to be standing outside alone. It was the first week of March and the weather was still cold.

"Because you're coming with me. If you're going to be getting married in two months, then you need to pick out a dress." Shiloh grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her towards her silver BMW.

"Shi, I just got off work. I'm tired." Jake pouted. Her feet hurt. She was a little nauseous. And she promised Callie she'd help look at some requisition forms filled out by various city departments.

"Yeah well, Chance is doing a little... um... redecorating and it wouldn't be good for you to be in there anyway." She opened the passenger side door.

* * *

Three hours of looking at and trying on dresses and Jake felt drained, emotionally and physically. "So Chance said you didn't want to get married in a church?"

"Please, not you too." Jake sighed.

"What did you have in mind?"

"I dunno. Something outside. I kind of... um... know this place on the beach. It's really far off from the tourist area. It's really untouched. I, well, I don't know how good it's going to go over, but I'd sort of like to have a paw-fasting. I know Chance wants something traditional. I think, with a little work, I could make it something he'll like." Jake looked at herself in the mirror and frowned. "This is really ugly, Shiloh."

"Yeah. It looked a lot better on the rack." She sighed. "You know, I haven't seen anything that suits you. I mean, you could make a potato sack look good, but none of these are really you."

* * *

Chance winced as he sat on the couch. His back ached something fierce. But the floors looked great. He didn't think he'd be able to get it all done in a day, but there hadn't been many calls. And the ones he did get, he gave the number to a different shop. They were closed for repairs. He'd told Shiloh to give him a couple of hours to finish. It was nearly 9:00. What was she doing? Getting her hair done? Finally, he heard a car pull in. With a groan, he pushed himself off the couch and into a standing position.

By the time the girls came in the garage, he was standing at the top of the stairs holding a folded up bandanna. "You gotta put this on first," he smirked tiredly.

"Fine," Jake whined and lifted up her hair so that he could tie it around her eyes. She heard the door open and felt him lead her through. "Take off your shoes," he said.

Using him for balance, she slid out of her pumps, hearing Shiloh do the same. Jake tilted her head curiously, the floor felt different beneath her bare feet.

Shiloh bit her lip to keep from exclaiming how beautiful the new floors looked. Chance gave her a tired, but excited look. "Are you ready?"

"Yes," she said unenthusiastically. 'Ready for a hot bath and a good night's sleep,' she thought. She felt Chance's paws untie the blindfold. "Well?"

Jake blinked a few times to allow her eyes to adjust to the bright kitchen light. She looked down. The old, chipped yellowing tile shaped linoleum was replaced with newer, cleaner tile. She worked her eyes around the base of the cabinets. "Chance... this is..."

"You haven't seen the rest yet." He beamed, not allowing her to compliment him until she'd seen the full extent of his work. The ugly, rough wooden floor in the living room had been replaced with beige colored carpet. Her eyes widened at how plush it was beneath her feet. It extended down the hallway. Giving Chance a surprised look, she walked the length of the carpet down the hall. The light was on in their bedroom, allowing her to see that he'd laid carpet in there too.

Chance flipped the switch on in the room that had been Jake's. "In here too."

She peeked in the doorway, noticing that her bed was gone. As was her dresser. "Where..."

"I figured we'd need the room for a different kind of furniture." He shrugged. "I got it stored away. Don't worry."

"Chance, you..."

"I'm not done." He walked across the hall and pushed open the bathroom door.

"You did the floors in here too?" Jake's wide amber eyes filled with tears. "You must've been working on this since I left this morning."

He nodded tiredly.

"I think it's perfect," Jake smiled and wrapped her arms around him. "I can't remember the last time I lived somewhere with carpet."

"I'm glad you like it," Chance replied quietly, grunting a little beneath her embrace.

Shiloh took this as her cue to leave.

"I bet you're exhausted. Did you eat anything?" Jake gave him a quick peck on the cheek.

"Damn straight and I had a sandwich earlier."

"A sandwich?" Jake twitched her tail. "Go relax. I'll throw something together." Her legs protested the extra movement, desperately wanting to be still. She pulled a package of chicken from the freezer and popped it in the microwave to defrost. With a sigh, she opened the cupboards. "Let's see. What do we have that isn't going to make me hurl," she quietly said. Her eyes landed on a box of spaghetti. "You think you'd let me have pasta?" Her stomach growled in response. "I'll take that as a yes."

Chance muted the television. Was Jake talking to herself? He listened intently for a second and then smiled. Then he turned the sound back on just loud enough so that she wouldn't have to hear Scaredy Kat.

Forty-five minutes later, Jake sat a steaming hot bowl of chicken spaghetti in front of her fiance. "Bon appetite."

"Smells great," Chance grinned and dug into his dinner.

Jake followed with less gusto.

After dinner, she forced herself to do the dishes and put away the leftovers before succumbing to the need for that hot bath. Chance walked by as she was filling up the tub. He watched the steam wafting up out of the water and sighed. "You think there's room for two in that tub?"

"Sure," she said, unbuttoning her blouse. Jake allowed Chance to get in the tub first. He let out a grunt of pleasure as the hot water immediately began to melt away some of the pain in his back. He held out a paw to steady his lover as she stepped over the edge of the tub and sank down gracefully between his legs. "Oh that feels nice," she whispered, letting her head fall back against his chest. "You really did a great job on the floors, Chance."

"Uh huh," he sighed. He snaked his arms around her and gently rested them on her belly. For the first time since she'd told him, he laid his palm flat on her stomach. "I hope it's a boy."

"Me too." She felt Chance gently tuck her hair around her neck, draping it down her front. He kissed the now exposed parts. "Mmm," Jake trembled. She felt him stiffen behind her. "I don't know if I have the energy for that tonight."

"Me either," he chuckled. "But it's so hard to be near you and not want to."

"You still going to think like that when I'm fat?"

"Oh yeah," he purred allowing his paws to roam her body, but feeling too weary to put much effort into it. Jake could practically taste how exhausted he was and wiggled her toes around in the water until she found the drain.

Chance watched her pull herself out of the receding water and wrap a towel around her body. She held one up for him. He smiled and gripped the edge of the tub to push himself up. It quickly turned into a wince. "The things I do for you..." he chuckled.

Jake rolled her eyes. "Only after the things you do _to_ me. Come on. I bet I can loosen your back."

Their bedroom had a slight chill, but it wasn't anything unbearable. Chance discarded his towel in exchange for a pair of clean shorts. Jake did the same, slipping into a pair of loose fitting workout shorts that had been hers as a tom, and one of Chance's t-shirts. Chance laid down on his stomach and felt her situate herself on his butt, just above his tail and start working her paws into his back. He let out an appreciative grunt and closed his eyes. Jake slowly worked the knots out, stopping when her paws ached and Chance's breathing evened out. She smirked. Then checked his alarm before turning off the light and pulling the covers up over them both.

* * *

Jake looked up as, once again, Callie swept up her coffee. She sighed and looked at the bottle of juice she replaced it with. "What're you working on?" The deputy mayor peeked over her assistant's shoulder at the computer screen. It was a website for a local florist.

"You think I should go with the tiger lilies? They're a little more exotic, but I don't really like roses."

It was the beginning of April. She had a month left.

Callie narrowed her eyes. "Hmm. You know, I kind of like them."

"What about Chance? You think he'll like them? I mean, I'm taking him to the place I reserved for the ceremony after work. If he doesn't like the beach, I guess I can pick out something more subdued." Jake eyed the jar of pretzels sitting on her desk. She didn't even really like pretzels, but she grabbed a large pawful anyway.

"I'm sure he'll love them." Callie squeezed her shoulder. "But you'll have to worry about that later. We have a lot of work to do. It's an election year. And Mayor Manx still hasn't mentioned what his platform for reelection is going to be. That means he hasn't put any thought into and we have to do it for him."

"Great..." Jake sighed and closed out the page.

* * *

It was well after 3 in the afternoon when Mayor Manx pushed open the door to Jacquelyn's office. "My dear, is Call-ay in?" There was a hint of frustration and worry in his voice. It was an odd thing to hear. Usually, it was fear.

Jake stood up. "She certainly is," she smiled down at the short toupee wearing kat and went to open Callie's office door. Manx adjusted his hair piece as he went in. Jake started to leave. "Oh no. You must stay for this." He insisted.

"What's going on, Mayor?" Callie could sense the unease just as easily as her assistant.

"Well, it's come to my attention that you two wonderful ladies have been working on my campaign all day. And, well, let me just be truthful here. Call-ay, I don't want another term."

"You... you what?" The deputy mayor looked stricken. "Well why not?"

"I've pulled three terms. And every year it seems like there are more and more...eh... monsters. I don't think I can handle another year of attacks."

"But the Swat Kats..." Callie started to defend.

"There's something else." He put a paw on hers, as if speaking to a kitten. "I'm afraid if I was reelected, you'd only be shouldering even more of the workload."

"I don't mind the work." Callie couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"I know you don't, my dear." He sighed. He certainly wasn't the bravest kat in the world, but it was best to just say it and get it over with. "I have cancer. Pancreatic cancer to be more specific. The chances of my being around another complete term are unlikely at best."

Callie looked stricken. Jake looked at her heels.

"I think you should run." Mayor Manx said quietly. "For years you've been handling just about everything anyway. This city would be lucky to have you in my place."

* * *

Chance hated sitting in the passenger seat. But Jake had insisted she drive without giving him clue one about where they were going. He fidgeted with the vent. It wasn't warm enough to have the windows rolled down, but it was too warm to have the heat on. So it was simply on the fan. Then he fiddled with the radio. When Jake decided to take Callie up on her job offer, Chance knew she'd need a car. Luckily, one that a customer felt was too much trouble to repair landed in his capable paws. It was a 90's model Prelude. Black with only a few dents and a slightly torn headliner. But he'd fixed it up and made it reliable.

"So... uh... how was work?" He tried to guess where they were going.

"It was certainly something interesting." She proceeded to tell Chance about the mayor and about how Callie was going to run for office.

"Manx is dying?" Chance's eyes widened. "Damn. I just sort of always figured he'd be the mayor, you know?"

"Uh huh," Jake slowed down as she approached her turn off.

Chance gave her a suspicious look when he saw signs for the Hurricane Evacuation Route. "We're going to the beach?"

"Sort of," she smiled nervously. The tourist portion of the coastline was south. She went north. That was where the scenery became less tampered with. Finally, she pulled into a gravel parking area and got out. Chance looked around at the trees and felt the cool wind coming through them. He could almost taste the salt water. Jake started towards a sandy path in a break between the trees. "Are you coming or what?"

The large tabby watched her take off her heels so that she could move more easily in the sand and followed her down the kat-made path. Jake stopped on the open shore and let the ocean breeze sweep up her hair. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply.

Chance looked around. It looked like a deserted island. As if they were miles from modern civilization. Dunes of sand with seaweed stuck in them were piled up against the trunks of Palmetto trees, and driftwood and various shells littered the sand. Waves rolled forward and rushed against the beach.

"Well?" Jake gave Chance an expectant look.

He stared at her blankly and she sighed.

"For the ceremony?"

"Ah," Chance replied quietly.

"You know what? Why don't you just figure out what you want and then tell me." Jake huffed and stalked off.

"What? Jac, I didn't even say anything about it!" He jogged after her.

"Exactly," she spun around and glared at him. "You didn't say anything. Which translates into: I hate it it." Tears welled up in her eyes. "I don't know why you can't just tell me what you want instead of just leaving it all up to me to decide!" She exploded.

"I wasn't... no I don't... you... ugh!" Chance balled his paws into fists. "Look," he took a deep, calming breath. "We don't have to do this so soon. If it's too much stress, we can wait until after the kitten is born."

"I don't want to wait until then." She said through clenched teeth, not bothering to check the tears soaking her cheeks.

"Then if this is where you want the ceremony to be, it's fine."

"Fine? It's fine? I don't want it to be 'fine'!"

Chance cut his eyes sideways and sighed. "Jake," he said softly causing her to stiffen in surprise. "Look, I'm sorry, okay? This place is really nice. I like it. I just...."

"What is it, Chance?"

"I'm just..." He squeezed his eyes shut and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I'm just a little nervous, okay?"

"Nervous?" Jake felt her anger dissipate. "Oh Chance..." she whispered. "Why didn't you say something before?"

"Well it's kind of hard when one minute you're fine and the next you're freaking out on me over something petty. I've been walking on eggshells lately just to keep you happy. I didn't want to upset you even more." He sighed again and looked down at his feet. He felt Jake wrap her arms around him.

"Chance, I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking about you, I guess. I just... we can do this at your pace. I just want you to be happy." She buried her face in his chest.

Chance returned the embrace with one arm around her back and the other nestled in her loose hair. He kissed the top of her head. "I am happy."

"Are we good?" She asked quietly.

"Yeah," he replied. "And this spot is perfect." Chance pushed her away and held her at arms length. He smiled as he took in the swelling in her abdomen. It was hard to believe she was only 4 months along. "And May is perfect."

"Thank you," Jake whispered and pulled him into a tight hug.

* * *

"This is so exciting," Jake handed Callie a finalized copy of her first campaign speech. "Hey, are you going to eat that?" She pointed to her boss's apple.

"No. You can have it." Callie sighed as she read over the speech. "Wow this is good. I think I might actually have a chance if Milo's speeches aren't half as good as yours." She arched an eyebrow as her assistant dropped the apple core in the trash. "Aren't you supposed to be having dinner with Chance's parents tonight? You've been eating all day."

Jake frowned. "I know. It's terrible. I feel like I'm starving. And I'm nervous. I'm really nervous. Chance has never had a whole lot of good things to say about his parents. But I don't have mine. I don't have anybody that's going to be there except his family." She started to cry again.

"Whoa, hey. Jackie. Easy on the waterworks, okay?" Callie smiled. "If he doesn't really speak that highly of them, then what does it really matter what they think of you? You just have to get through the next two weeks and then you don't have to deal with them."

"I know. I know." Jake paced anxiously. "Callie. I know it's short notice, but would you like to come to the wedding?"

Callie looked somewhat startled.

"It's just that I..." She looked down. "I'm feeling kind of alone right now. I mean, Shiloh's great and all but she's Chance's sister."

"What about your brother?" Callie asked.

"I... I guess he'll be there in spirit..." She wiped her eyes. "It would really mean a lot to me..."

"Then I'll be there with bells on." Callie smiled. "But you're going to have to help me pick out something to wear." She looked at the time. "That'll have to be another day, though. It's almost 5:00 and you have a dinner party to get ready for."

* * *

It was spring. Kats were supposed to wear bright colors. But Jake was wearing black. It was slimming. Of course slimming only did so much when you're pregnant. She brushed her hair and then twisted it up on top of her head, pinning it in place with a pair of chopsticks. After another long moment of hesitation in front of the mirror, she left their room.

"I hope this doesn't go as badly as I think it's going to go." Jake said to Chance as he straightened his shirt and ran a comb through his hair.

"It's going to be fine. They're too stuck up to say anything that might cause a scene." Chance grumbled. "You know, if I didn't think my gran would have been angry, I wouldn't even bother with this." He looked at his fiance. "You look beautiful, by the way."

Jake blushed. "Stop it. We're going to be late."

* * *

Jake stared down into her glass of water while Janice Furlong spoke. The lady was infuriatingly arrogant.

"... think it's just marvelous, don't you Jacquelyn?"

Jake looked up suddenly, blushing. She'd completely zoned out. "I'm sorry." She apologized. "I completely lost track of the conversation."

"Silly girl." Her smile was fake. "How far along are you again? Six or seven months?"

She shrank a little at the insult. Chance's mother knew she wasn't that far along. "Not quite. 19 weeks."

"Hmm... well Chance was a large kitten too."

"Any word on how much longer you have to suffer through that filthy scrap yard?" His father Clifton steered the subject from his son's fiance's weight.

Chance sighed. "Another two or three years."

"Two or three years?" Janice gasped. "That's practically a lifetime."

"It would've been a lifetime had it not been for Jacquelyn." Chance defended.

"And what is it you do, again? Secretary?" Janice smirked.

"Not exactly." Jake defended. "Assistant. To the deputy mayor."

"My. The _deputy _mayor. What a grand position that must be."

"Mom..." Chance watched Jake's paw tremble as she took a sip of water. She was desperately trying to hold in her temper. He needed to diffuse the situation. "So we're really hoping the nice weather holds out for the next couple of weeks."

"Rain wouldn't be a problem if you weren't having some pagan nonsense for a wedding." Clifton stated.

"Pagan nonsense..." Jake huffed. "I..."

"I think we've reached our limit." Chance interrupted Jake, referring to the amount of time he could spend with his parents before things started to deteriorate.

* * *

"I'm really sorry about her." Chance shot Jake a look. "She really doesn't know when to stop sometimes."

"It's alright," Jake sounded dispirited. She put her paw on her belly and sighed. It wasn't like she'd just been laying around eating all the time. The moment she started gaining weight, she stopped taking the elevator. And Callie had talked her into going to her Pilates class. Maybe she _was_ eating too much.

"You aren't seriously dwelling on what she said, are you? Jackie, babe, she's just a bitch sometimes. I know it sucks, but that's just how she is. And you're not fat. You're pregnant. And she wasn't lying, you know. I think she said I weighed 11 pounds when I was born."

"Eleven pounds?" Jake's eyes widened. She shuddered at the thought of something that large coming out of her.

"We've still got a while before we need to worry about that," he removed his paw from the gearshift long enough to pat her on the leg. "Besides," he grinned. "We're getting married in two weeks. Are you going to explain this whole paw-fasting thing to me?"

* * *

Jake looked in the mirror in Shiloh's hotel room. Since the wedding was on the beach, a hotel seemed like the best place to get ready for it. Her dress was simple. White satin and sleeveless. It billowed out to hide her baby bump and halted just above her knees. Shiloh looked at Callie. "Something's missing."

"The veil." Callie picked it up off the bed. "I feel like a kitten. I keep thinking about all this stuff I want to do when I get married." The veil was a simple band with several strands of lace that streamed down through her hair. Shiloh plucked one of the tiger lilies and tucked it into her hair just beside one of her ears. "You look stunning!" Shiloh purred. "I'm going to check on my brother. We've got thirty minutes before the ceremony starts."

* * *

Chance clutched his stomach. He'd just spent the past twenty minutes vomiting. His nerves were twisted up tightly. And he hadn't seen Jake in two days. Shiloh insisted it would make everything that much more meaningful. Instead, he felt jittery and vulnerable. He never thought he'd feel so lost without even hearing her voice. There was knock at the door. Pulling himself together, he opened it.

"Hey Shi," he said quietly.

"Chance? You look like shit. Are you alright?"

"I don't think I can do this." He blurted.

"Of course you can." Shiloh gave her brother a hug. "And just wait until you see her. She's gorgeous."

"She's always gorgeous." Chance didn't return the embrace. Instead, he ran a paw nervously through his hair.

"Just calm down," Shiloh stepped back and straightened her own summery dress. "You two are meant to be together. If you weren't, then I'm confident none of this would've ever happened."

"You think so?"

"I know so. Chance, she loves you. It's so obvious when she looks at you and when she talks about you. She didn't sleep at all last night. All she wanted to do was call you and talk to you and I wouldn't let her. Everything's going to go off without a hitch."

"Famous last words," Chance snickered.

* * *

Chance felt the sand between his toes and looked up at the priest. The crashing of the waves did nothing to calm his nerves. They'd passed on music during the ceremony to save a little money. Callie walked down the narrow sandy path, barefoot wearing a knee length light blue dress. Followed behind her was Shiloh. She was the last before Jake. That meant it was time for the ceremony to begin. Everyone stood silently. Chance wiped his palms on his pants legs, feeling the rings in his pocket.

Jake blew out a long breath as she started down the path. She could hear murmuring and whispering. A soft breeze swept through the trees lining the path and she tightened her grip on the bouquet of tiger lilies and daisies in her paws. She paused at the edge of the path, meeting Chance's steely gaze. The priest cleared his throat and the murmuring stopped. The only sound was the wind, the water and the distant squawking of seagulls. With her heart pounding in her throat, she stepped in front of Chance.

The priest smiled and stepped closer to the pair. He placed a paw one's arm and spoke just loud enough for the small gathering to hear him clearly.

"Jacquelyn and Chance, know now before you go further, that since your lives have crossed in this life, you have formed eternal and sacred bonds. As you seek to enter this state of matrimony you should strive to make real the ideals that _to you,_ give meaning this ceremony and to the institution of marriage."

He paused.

"With full awareness, know that within this circle you are not only declaring your intent to be paw-fasted before your friends and family, but you speak that intent also to your creative higher powers. The promises made today and the ties that are bound here greatly strengthen your union and will cross the years and lives of each soul's growth. Do you still seek to enter this ceremony?"

Chance took Jake's paws. They both said "yes."

"Then we are gathered here to bind these two souls for eternity." He motioned for the crowd, consisting of Janice, Wayne, Shiloh and Callie, to stand.

"Blessed be this union with the gifts of openness and breath, of communication of the heart and purity of the body and the mind and the understanding that each day is a new opportunity for growth.

Blessed be this union with the gifts of energy, passion, creativity and a loving home. May you find light in each other that you can share in times of darkness.

Blessed be this union with the gifts of the capacity to feel emotion. In marriage you offer absolute trust to one another, and a promise to keep your hearts open in times of joy as well as sorrow.

Blessed be this union with the gifts that provide sustenance, security, as well as fertility. In each other you will build a stable, loving home to which you can always return."

The priest motioned for the guests to sit back down.

"Chance, Jacquelyn, I ask you to look deep into each others eyes. Will you honor and respect each other and seek to never break that honor?"

"We will," they both said.

The priest draped a golden cord over their paws. "And so the first binding is made. Will you share each others pain and strive to ease it?"

"We will." The second cord was draped over their paws.

"Will you share the burdens so that your spirits may grow in this union?"

"We will." The third.

"Will you share each others laughter and look for the positive and the brightness in life in each other?"

"We will." The fourth was laid.

"And so the binding is made," the priest tied the cords together. "Jacquelyn and Chance, as your paws are bound together now, so your lives and spirits are joined in a union of love and trust. Above you are the stars and below you is the earth. Like the stars you love should be a constant source of light, and like the earth, a firm foundation from which to grow. You are one. You may kiss the bride."

Chance leaned towards Jake, their bound paws pressed between their chests as he kissed her. When they separated, the priest untied their paws and Chance pulled the rings from his pocket. He slipped the silver band on her ring finger, stopping it snugly against his grandmother's ring. Then he closed Jake's paw around his. Her lips trembled as she repeated the gesture. They clasped their paws together and kissed one more time.

_**Sorry. Not a whole lot of action in this one. I promise it will get better. Consider this one the boring episode. I took the words for the ceremony from my own. Though I embellished it to make it a little less... pagan. Hope you all enjoyed it.**_

_**Nyte Kat.**_


	5. Chapter 5

_**In light of some recent criticism, not that I have a problem with criticism, I'd like to clear a few things up. First and foremost, I'm not going to explain to Callie what happened to Jake simply because that would be quite a shock for anyone. Second, as for my use of boy, girl, tom, she-kat, let me ask a question. Do you have pets? I don't know about any of you, but I do and I call my dogs 'girls' all the time, even though the term for a female dog is 'bitch.' And I can't exactly use the terms 'man' and 'woman' because they are kats and those terms refer to human genders. Just the same, kittens are still babies no matter what. For the sake of not being repetitive, I will continue to write in my own fashion. Finally, I know some of you think this story should be done as chapters, so I've done just that. However, I have mapped this story out in my head and for it to work, eventually I will have to make separate posts. **_

_**I promise a little more action in this one. Enjoy.**_

_**NK**_

Chance sat in the swivel chair, waiting for the doctor to come in. Jake was having another sonogram today. This one they hoped would tell whether or not they should be buying pink or blue. In the past couple of months, they'd experienced the baby kicking. A lot. It was a feeling Chance couldn't get enough of.

"Alright, are you two ready?" Dr. Reynolds smiled. She was going to be the one delivering the baby.

"Oh yeah," Jake was practically vibrating with excitement.

It didn't take long for her to get everything set up and on the screen. "Okay, let's see. There's a foot. And another foot. And another... wait..." She adjusted the monitor, her eyes widened. "Oh my."

"What's wrong?" Chance gripped his wife's paw.

"Nothing's wrong." Dr. Reynolds looked up at the expectant parents. "I can tell you that _one_ of them is a boy. I can't see the other."

"What? One of them?" Chance leaned closer to the monitor.

"Oh yeah. You got two kittens in there, honey." She moved the device over her belly again so that they could catch a glimpse at the other baby. "This one's _definitely_ a boy."

"Twins?" Jake said finally.

"Normally we could tell much sooner but they just weren't moving around enough to see." The doctor explained. She did another sweep, trying to see if she could get the sex on the other baby. "I want to say that one's a boy too, but it just won't let me get a good look."

Jake gave Chance a frantic look. As ready as she was to have the baby, she was scared to death. Now, she'd have two?

* * *

"What are you doing?!" Shiloh shrieked. "Jac!" She glared at the pregnant she-kat standing on a chair in the kitchen.

"I couldn't reach." Jake handed her down a glass bowl and then slowly climbed down. "Relax. My balance is just as good as always."

"If Chance would've walked in here just now, he would've chewed you out and you know it." Shiloh sat the bowl on the counter. "What are you making?"

"I don't know. I'm just kind of... experimenting."

"You've been doing that a lot lately."

"Yeah well, if I'm going to be a mom, then I need to learn how to cook more than the really easy, simple stuff, right?" Jake pulled a package of ground beef from the fridge. "You know my mom was an amazing cook."  
"No. I didn't know that. You never talk about your parents."

"Yeah well. They died. Not much to talk about." Jake pulled off the plastic and dropped the meat in the bowl. "Anyway, she used to drag a chair up to the counter and make me stand on it and help her cook."

"And you remember how?"

"Mostly." Jake shrugged. "I remember the important things." She pointed to a bowl of bread slices soaking in a bowl of warm water. "And cooking is basically chemistry. And you know I'm a science whiz." She sat the bowl aside and grabbed a loaf of bread and a banana. "I'm starving. You want a sandwich?"

Shiloh shook her head, watching her pull out the jar of mayo. Jake peeled the banana, cut it in half and then sliced the halves into spears. She slathered the bread in mayo and put the banana slices between them. "Oh now that's just wrong."

"But it's _so_ good." Jake took a huge bite.

* * *

"Good morning," Jake said cheerfully to Callie. "How's it feel to be the Mayor?"

"You know, I really don't see what it is he does. So far I haven't done anything I don't normally do. In fact, his list of things that needed to be done included the list of things I have to do all the time." Callie shook her head. Mayor Manx was receiving treatment for his cancer. That meant Callie had to assume the role of temporary mayor. "This is a good thing," Jake reminded her. "You get to show the citizens of Megakat City that you can do the job. Mr. Powders has to work extra hard to compete with that."

"I know. You're right. So? Boy or girl?" Callie was excited. She'd been secretly planning a small baby shower for her assistant (and temporary deputy mayor) with Shiloh.

"Boy, for sure. But, as it so happens, I'm having twins and the other one was being shy." Jake flushed.

"Twins? God you're going to have your paws full! Did they tell you how much longer you could work?" Callie really hoped she wouldn't be with out an assistant for a little while longer.

"No, but it was suggested that I consider taking it easy. So the stairs are out." She rubbed her belly. "And so are the heels. I hope you don't mind."

"You can wear sneakers if you want. Whatever I can do to keep you around as long as possible." Callie watched her assistant waddle back to her office. Then she looked out the large office window and prayed that nothing catastrophic would happen while she was temporarily leading the city.

* * *

Chance had a checklist of what he wanted to do before the baby, correction: babies, arrived. The floors had been finished. The windows were replaced. Shiloh helped him replace the roof two weekends ago. What else was left? He stood in the empty nursery. Paint. A crib. A changing table. He needed another checklist. He heard the familiar rumble of the Prelude and went downstairs.

Jake smiled up at Chance as he opened the door for her. "Thanks."

"You're home early." Chance helped her out of the car.

"Callie is acting like I'm made out of glass. I think the stress is getting to her." She kissed him.

"Or she doesn't want you to go into labor at work. That might make you a liability." Chance teased, kissing her in return. He made a face. "Have you been eating mongo peppers?"

"Busted," she grinned. "Don't blame me." Jake took his paws and placed them on her belly. "They're your kittens."

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever. I recall you being the one always challenging me to see who can eat more of those things."

"And I won."

"You cheated." Chance reminded her. He brushed a strand of that beautiful reddish brown hair out of her face. It was true what they said about pregnant she-kats. Jake was radiant. He kissed her again.

"Mmm," she purred. "You better stop. You know I can't help myself these days."

"Which is exactly why I don't stop," he growled playfully, grabbing her butt. "Let's go inside before I take you right here."

"You don't have to tell me twice." She nuzzled his chin with her cheek and followed him inside.

Jake was wearing a long soft cotton dress that made her current figure look almost provocative. Chance easily worked it up and over her shoulders. He kissed her tender breasts gently and caressed her belly with his paws. "God you're beautiful." He eased her down onto the bed and worked her panties off. It was awkward to try and kiss her while he worked inside of her. He smoothed his paws down underneath her and lifted her hips. Jake moaned and arched her back. "You feel so good." Chance trembled at her meowing and whimpering. He grunted and went weak as he came inside her.

Jake panted for several long moments before moving. "You ever think we're scarring them?"

Chance gave Jake a quizzical look. "Do you remember anything from before you were born?"

"No."

"Then we should be allowed to have all the fun we want." Chance tossed her a pair of sweat pants she'd favored lately and one of his t-shirts.

* * *

"Oh," Jake gasped at the sudden kick. "I know little guy. Just one more month to go and you're home free." She rubbed her belly. A second sonogram had showed that both kittens were boys. Then she'd gotten the shock of her life to come home and find the nursery full of all the necessary items. Callie and Shiloh had outdone themselves. Now it was just the waiting game.

She pulled the papers out of the printer tray and went to the elevator to bring Callie the latest stack of papers she'd need to sign. It dinged softly as she reached her floor. Just as her paw was on the Mayor's office, the power went out. There was a shriek from inside the office followed by the sound of glass shattering.

"Callie!" She shouted and threw open the door only to be assaulted by creeplings. A terrible feeling of deja vu crept over her. Jake struggled against the little pink demons. The dug into her arms with their claws and pulled her towards the deputy mayor.

"Well perhaps the city will pay double." Dark Kat loomed over the two she-kats. He laughed and placed one of his large purple paws on the pregnant one's belly. "Or even triple."

"Don't you touch her," Callie spat and kicked out at the villain.

"Creeplings, restrain these ladies." He made himself comfortable in the Mayor's desk chair. "Tell me, where is that sniveling little kitten? I have a few demands to make."

"Yeah. We get it already. You want to control this city." Callie squirmed against the ropes that were suddenly around her. The creeplings that had been trying to restrain Jake let her go to stop the blonde she-kat from fighting. Callie gave her a look that pleaded her to run. Instead, she grabbed a chair and beat the creeplings away. While the little minions were busy, she clawed the ropes around Callie. "Get help," she pleaded and pushed her out the door.

"Jacquelyn!" Callie shouted as creeplings barricaded the door. "Chance is going to kill me!" She darted down the stairs and into her assistant's office. Frantically, she dug for her purse, dumping it out on the desk. Hidden among candy bars, pens and keys was a little triangular pager. Callie's was in the office with Jacquelyn.

It only took moments before she heard a familiar voice, laced with more fear than she'd ever heard. "What is it, Miss Briggs?"

"T-Bone it's Dark Kat." Her voice shook. "He has Jacquelyn."

"He _what_?! I'm on my way." That was it. None of his usual warnings to get out or be careful. He was gone.

"I have to get her out of there," Callie headed back for the stairs, abandoning her heels for the sake of being stealthy.

* * *

"You are a very foolish she-kat." Dark Kat snarled in the face of the girl who'd helped the deputy mayor escape. "You are not as important as she is."

Jake knew she'd made a mistake the minute the doors shut behind Callie. A sharp pain shot up through her stomach. 'Not now,' she thought. 'Please not now.' Dark Kat rounded on her. "Are you enough of a bargaining chip to get what I want? You certainly are a pretty face, but you have no control over this city." He gripped the cinnamon furred she-kat's blouse and lifted her off the ground.

"You're making a mistake." Jake fought against his grasp. "I'm far more important than you realize." She hoped that she could convince Dark Kat that she was just as valuable to the city as Callie. Something slammed against the door, jarring it against the golf club that was holding it closed. Dark Kat dropped the she-kat.

Jake gasped as she hit the floor. She felt something wet between her legs. "Oh god," she muttered. The door came off the hinges and the creeplings were hit in the face with the white spray of a fire extinguisher. Too stunned to fight back, they fell quickly as Callie hit them with the device. Dark Kat lunged. She ducked out of the way just as an octopus missile came through the window and pinned him to the wall.

"I wouldn't touch her if I were you." T-Bone snarled. It took every ounce of control not to run to the she-kat panting on the floor. Callie did it for him.

"Are you alright?" She helped Jake into a sitting position.

"I think... my water just broke..." Jake clutched her stomach.

"Your what?" T-Bone turned his attention from Dark Kat.

"Look out!" Jake shouted as Dark Kat shucked the restraint and fired a laser at the lone Swat Kat.

T-Bone narrowly dodged the laser and raised his Glovatrix. He fired a few of his own rounds at the purple beast. "Get her out of here, Miss Briggs."

Callie wasted no time in hooking an arm under her assistant and pulling her to her feet. "Come on. You're not having those babies in my office."

Jake squeezed her arm, gritting her teeth in pain. "This isn't your office yet." They made it as far as the door to the stairwell. "Stop," she panted. "Please... I can't...." Her knees buckled and she let out a sharp cry. "Chance..." she whimpered.

"Shh," Callie gently stroked her cheek. "Just breathe, okay? Didn't the doctors tell you that you'd need to breathe?"

"You're not the one... having your cervix ripped apart." Jake hissed.

T-Bone was throwing everything he had at Dark Kat. All he could see was his wife, on the floor. He could hear the Enforcer's coming. "Time's up, Dark Crud." He fired a mini-boomer missile at the fiend. Dark Kat laughed maniacally and dodged. "It is indeed, Swat Kat!" He pulled a control from his pocket and pressed the button. The Doomsday Express seemed to materialize outside the window. "Until we meet again."

T-Bone punched the window frame and ran out of the office. He skidded to a halt. "Jackie..."

Callie held her head in her lap while her assistant cried out in pain. "She needs to get to a hospital. Now!" He was already picking her up.

* * *

A nurse was coaching Jake through a breathing exercise when Chance rounded the corner. "Thank god," he skidded to a halt. "I was afraid I'd miss this."

"She's just now between contractions." The nurse informed him. "They're close though. Dr. Reynolds is on her way here."

Chance brushed Jake's sweat drenched hair back and kissed her forehead. "You scared me. What the hell where you thinking?"

Jake blinked up at him. "Can't say... that I was..." She closed her eyes as he blotted her face with a damp washrag.

"Obviously." Chance took her paw in his just as another set of contractions started. Her grip was constricting.

"God DAMN IT!" She swore loudly.

Chance looked up at the nurse that had been helping her when he came in. "You can't give her anything?"

"At this point? No. It's not recommended unless she's in danger. Jackie, honey, remember what we said about breathing."

"... Fuck... you... and... you're... stupid.... breathing..." Jake panted.

"Now that's no way for a mother to talk," Dr. Reynolds voice broke through the hysteria. "I hope you're ready for those babies, Mrs. Furlong."

"Just... make it... stop..." She snarled.

"Jac," Chance tried to sooth. "The nurse is right. You need to br...eeaatthee..." She tightened her grip, twisting his paw painfully.

"I... can't...." she whimpered.

"Yes you can. You have to." He felt his fingers go numb. It was a safe bet that at least one metacarpal was out of place.

It seemed like another hour of contractions before Dr. Reynolds started telling Jake to push. It was another eternity altogether before the sound of a kitten meowing loudly filled the delivery room.

"Alright we've got one. Let's see if we can get another."

Jake shook her head. She was pushing but something didn't feel right. "Chance..." she gasped. "Chance... the baby..."

"Okay hang on." Dr. Reynolds shouted. Chance looked up sharply. She started talking about the umbilical chord and asphyxiation. There was a long tense moment filled with Jake's cries of pain and the doctor shouting orders. Finally, a good 25 minutes after the first infant, the cries of the second filled the room.

"Can... can I... stop... now?" Jake pleaded.

"You did great," Chance kissed her sweaty forehead.

* * *

Shiloh all but exploded through the door in recovery. A smile spread across her face as she took in her brother, standing with a tightly wrapped bundle in his arms. She looked from him to Jake. She sleepily held the other.

"Aww," she gushed. "They're beautiful." Her voice was quiet. Two of the maternity nurses came in to take the kittens so that Jake could rest.

"You look exhausted," Shiloh couldn't help but notice the look of disappointment on both their faces when the babies were taken. "I hope you finally figured out those names."

"Corbin Lee," Chance answer. "Then Jacob Alexander. He's the youngest "

"Corey and Jake," Jake smiled tiredly.

"How're you going to tell them apart?" Shiloh asked.

"It's going to be hard." Chance chuckled. "They both have Jackie's coloring and my stripes. Jake's a little smaller, though. And his ears have a little bit of blonde on them."

(_**Author's Note: This is where I stop calling Jake 'Jake' and start calling her 'Jacquelyn' permanently.**_)

Chance drove slower than he'd ever driven in his life, constantly looking over his shoulder at the two sleeping kittens in their designated car seats. He looked over at his wife. Jackie still looked exhausted, even after two days of practically sleeping.

"Chance," She whispered. "You can do the speed limit. I don't think it'll hurt them."

"Sorry," he grinned sheepishly and cautiously pressed the accelerator. Jackie watched Corbin, who was behind Chance, open his eyes at the sound of the engine revving slightly. She snorted. "That one's yours."

"What?" Chance hadn't seen it.

"Corey. He likes it when you drive fast." Jackie watched his eye lids flutter shut once more.

"What about Jake?" Chance stole a glance at their other son. He remained asleep.

"If he's anything like me, then he's the reasonable one." She smirked.

* * *

It only took a week for Jackie to go back to work. At least, as far as Chance was concerned when he came in to take a break and found her laptop open on the kitchen table. "What are you doing?" He stuck his head around the screen.

Jackie quickly turned it. "It's top secret."

"Bullshit," he teased.

"Chance, the election is in three months. Callie's worried that Mr. Powders might actually have more sway in the public opinion." Jackie quirked an ear. Did one of the boys just cry? No. She was hearing things.

"I'm sure she'll do fine. She's practically got it in the bag." Chance washed his paws in the sink. A loud piercing wail caused them both to cringe for a moment. "Corey," Jackie said, getting up quickly, hoping to silence him before he woke Jake up. "Shh," she cooed, carefully picking up the kitten and moving out of the nursery. Chance stole a quick glance at the one still sleeping in his bassinet. "I swear, Jackie. He can sleep through anything."

"I know, right? Come on Corey, settle down." She calmed the squalling baby and then eased him back into his own little sleeping place.

Then the klaxon went off. "Our for the love of God!" Jackie stomped her foot. Corey started screaming again. Followed quickly by Jake, who was finally awake and clearly not happy about it.

"Sorry babe." Chance grinned and kissed her cheek.

"You better be careful!" She followed him out of the room.

"Always!" Chance shouted as he darted down the hall to the secret door.

"Always my tail," she hissed and set out calming the two kittens and then getting back to work. Callie's 'homework' wasn't the only thing she needed to do. Jackie looked down at her not-exactly-perfect tummy. Giving birth had made her hips wider as well. "Somehow," she said out loud. "I don't think Pilates is going to fix this." She turned on the baby monitor and went down to the hangar.

While she worked out, she turned the Enforcer band radio on so that she could keep an ear out for T-Bone.

* * *

Chance dragged himself up the stairs. He was weary from the fight with another Pumadyne special. "I really wish someone would just shut that place down," he grumbled, pausing when he saw Jackie sitting on the floor just outside the nursery. "What are you still doing up?" He knelt in front of her. Then he smiled. She was asleep with her back against the wall, head tipped slightly forward and legs stretched out.

"Jackie," he shook her. "Come on, babe."

"Shh," she whispered, but it was too late. Corey started to wail. Jackie let her head fall back against the wall and she groaned loudly.

"I got this one." Chance kissed her between her ears.

"Thank you," she sighed and remained sitting on the floor.

When she woke up, she was laying in bed, but she was alone. "Chance," she whispered, then listened for any hint of sound. There was the muffled sound of a kitten crying. "Corey," Jackie sighed and slid out of bed. Once outside their bedroom, she realized Chance was awake and in the kitchen trying to calm the upset kitten. She slipped into the nursery to check on Jake. He was quietly sucking on a bottle.

"Come on. I know it's not the same," Chance rocked the kitten in his arms while he tried to get him to accept the bottle. "But mommy's asleep."

"No she's not," Jackie leaned tiredly against the door frame.

"Why is he being so difficult?" Chance looked exhausted.

"Because your anatomy isn't as appealing." She sighed and took the squalling infant from her husband.

"Ah. Little guy likes to drink from the tap, huh?" Chance smirked.

"Yep," she said as she sat down and lifted one side of her shirt. Her eyes widened as the kitten hungrily attacked her nipple. She winced.

Chance shook his head and dumped out the bottle he'd made. "Guess I can't do everything for you, huh?"

* * *

"Jake's an angel. He only cries when he's hungry and when he needs to be changed," Jacquelyn said to the babysitter. Shiloh knew someone who babysat out of their own home, which was good because Jackie and Chance didn't know what they would do if a call came in while a sitter was there.

"Corey, on the other hand," she gave Melissa the two diaper bags. "Well he's really fussy. And he'll probably fight you on the bottle but once he realizes that's all he's getting he'll be alright. Okay, so I gave you the number to my office and my cell? Did I give you Chance's number?"

Melissa nodded.

"Oh well let me give you Shiloh's just in case you can't get a hold of one of us." Jackie was a wreck. She was finally going back to work, after nearly three months of maternity leave. And she was leaving her babies with a stranger. Well, not a complete stranger, they'd met before hand, sort of like an interview. But still, Melissa wasn't their mother. She was only 20. She was still a kitten herself.

"Mrs. Furlong," Melissa squeezed her paw as she took the slip of paper with Shiloh's number. "I promise, your boys will be just fine. You just go to work and I'll see you at six, okay?" The young she-kat smiled sweetly.

Jackie's bottom lip trembled as she kissed each of her kittens, snug and sleeping in separate baby carriers, goodbye.

* * *

"Thank GOD!" Callie practically hugged her assistant. "You've been going to the gym, haven't you?"

"Hardly," Jacquelyn sat her laptop bag on her desk. "Any word from the mayor?"

Callie frowned. "It's not so good. I went to visit him while you were on leave. Jackie, he looks just awful. He's lost so much weight and what little bit of fur he had is nearly gone from the chemo. The election is in a week. And I swear, I think we'll be lucky if he's around to see who takes his place." Her eyes glistened. "I know I've complained a lot over the years about what I've had to do for him, but..." she trailed off.

"Oh Callie," Jackie hugged her tightly. "You know everything happens for a reason. Now what's on the schedule for today?"

"You're going to love this one." Callie perked up. "I know you aren't a fan of public speaking, but we need to make a few appearance, give a few speeches before the big day."

Jackie paled slightly.

"By we, I mean 'me'," Callie placated. "But you have to tag along because, if I win, that makes you my deputy mayor. And that means you'll need to get used to being in the public eye."

"Maybe I.. uh... could just be your assistant and you could find a different she-kat to be your deputy mayor."

"Nonsense," Callie scolded. "Listen, Jackie. It's a lot of work, but with you and Chance doing what you do, it's probably in the city's best interest to keep you close. I couldn't trust another deputy mayor not to ask questions when you just vanish in the middle of an attack. Oh," she looked suddenly startled. "You aren't, are you? Because you have to think about your kittens. What if something happens to you?"  
"I..." Jackie's eyes widened. "I hadn't thought about that. We'll just have to play that by ear."

"I guess so. We better hurry. We won't be spending much time in the office today." Callie grabbed her purse.

* * *

Chance had never really been one to pay attention to elections. But he brought the television down into the garage today so that, as he worked, he could keep an eye on the polls. If Callie won, it meant that his wife would be filling her place as Deputy Mayor. And that changed a lot of things. Ann Gora was interviewing the MKC District Attorney, Milo Powders.

"What do you think your chances are in this election?" The journalist asked, holding her microphone up to the candidate.

"I think that Miss Briggs and I are evenly matched. Over the years we've both contributed to this city. We'll actually be watching for the results together. I assure you, there won't be any hard feelings between us no matter who wins."

"Spoken like a true politician," Chance muttered. He was torn, really. He wanted Callie to win and knew it would be the best for the city, but his sister worked for Milo. Chance wondered if Ann knew that when he said they'd be watching the results together, he meant they'd be watching it from Mayor Manx's hospital bedside. Jackie told him that they were trying to keep his illness away from the media so that he wouldn't be surrounded by cameras and microphones when it finally happened.

* * *

Jacquelyn secured Corey and Jake into the backseat of her Prelude and looked at Chance. "Nervous?" She asked.

"Not as nervous as you." He grinned. His wife had left Callie's side to pick up her husband and kittens so that they would be with her when the results came in.

It wasn't an extremely long drive to the private medical complex where they'd hidden away the Mayor. In fact, it was a pretty ritzy looking building. Chance couldn't help the morbid thought. If he was rich and dying, this is probably where he'd want to die.

Jacquelyn unfastened one carrier while he unfastened the other. Chance realized he always ended up with Jake. Corey seemed to just know, even in his sleep, that it wasn't his mommy carrying him. And that's who he wanted. Chance hoped that the fussy kitten wouldn't grow up to be the mama's boy he was shaping up to be.

* * *

"Did I ever tell you, Jack-ay," Manx's voice was weak. "About my grandkittens?"

Jackie smiled tolerantly. "Mr. Manx, I didn't even know you had kittens."

"Please dear. I'm dying." He smiled tiredly. "There's no need for formalities."

"Sorry Charles." Jackie blushed. "Habit."

Chance watched as the ailing kat cooed at his kittens, making them smile and giggle sharply. It was a sound he never thought he'd enjoy. And it more than made up for the crying at 3 am.

Manx began to slowly recall his daughter and her kittens to the room full of kats and she-kats. "Sadly," he finished. "She died tragically in a roadside attack overseas."

"What about her kittens," Jackie felt her heart sink.

"They are with their father. As they should be." He coughed, then pointed at the television. "Turn that up, will you, Milo?"

The short DA stretched to reach the set mounted to the wall and everyone held their breath.

* * *

Callie wiped her eyes as they lowered Charles Manx's casket into the ground. She reached a paw out to grasp Jackie's arm. He'd passed just hours after the new mayor was announced and everyone but Callie had gone home. Devastated, she'd called her assistant in tears.

"He... he was like family," she whimpered.

"And he was proud of you," Jackie had comforted.

"Do you think... that I'm going to do a good job?" Callie sniffled. "That I'm going to be half as good as he was?"

Jackie fought the urge to tell her that she'd always been twice as good at running the city. It wasn't what she wanted to hear. "He said he was proud. And you're going to show this city why."

"We are," she squeezed Jackie's arm. "We're going to change things, Jackie. I can feel it."

_**Well I hope that was satisfying. This would've been done a day early but the dance floor was calling my name and the alcohol was cheap. My apologies.**_

_**Nyte Kat**_


	6. Chapter 6

_**As I said before, I don't intend to change up my use of boy, girl, tom and she-kat. As I explained in the previous installment, there are more than one way to describe genders. A female dog is a bitch, but we still call them **_**girls****_. Just as a kitten is a _baby_ cat. It's not that I'm unwilling to accept criticism, but more than I am unwavering in this decision. _**

_**Remember, I am no longer calling Jake 'Jake' since I have decided to give her name to one of her kittens.**_

_**Bear with me on this one. It's all part of my master plan.  
**_

_**Nyte Kat**_

* * *

"It is with a heavy heart today that I accept the position of Mayor of Megakat City." Mayor Calico Briggs spoke clearly into the microphone. To her right was her deputy Mayor, Jacquelyn Furlong. Behind her stood Milo Powders, her opponent and MKC District Attorney. To his left, Commander Ulysses Feral stood with his back straight and a glower on his face. "But for the first time in 12 years, this city has a new leader. I intend to work more closely with the Commander of the MKC Enforcers as well as with Milo Powders, our District Attorney in moving this city away from cataclysmic threats of destruction and back to prosperity, and we start today. For the past year, I'm sure many of you have become aware of my assistant, Jacquelyn Furlong. She has proven to be more helpful and more resourceful than I could have ever imagined. Because of her resourcefulness, she has taken my place as Deputy Mayor. And she has wasted no time in aiding in the benefit of this city. If you could all please give Jackie you're undivided attention." Callie stepped down from the podium and gave her deputy mayor's arm a reassuring squeeze.

"You made that look so easy," Jackie grimaced.

"It is. Just don't imagine anyone naked. That makes me laugh too hard to focus." She smiled.

Jackie took a deep breath and forced a bright smile on her face as she stepped up to the podium. Unlike Callie, however, she held no note cards and the teleprompter was blank. "Prior to working for Miss Briggs, I knew no more about our mayor than the average citizen. In the time I spent as her assistant, however, my eyes were opened to how much Mayor Manx cared about this city. When he revealed to us his illness, it was a shocking blow. And after watching him struggle and sitting with him on his final day as we waited for the election results, I was touched. In recognition of his short struggle with such a destructive illness, we are founding the Manx Cancer Research and Treatment Organization. This is a nonprofit charitable organization." Jackie smiled. She knew Chance was watching, well, if he wasn't changing diapers or making a bottle. "To show my devotion to this cause," she pulled the clip out of her hair. The long wavy reddish brown locks fell to just above her tail. She nodded to Callie, who approached wielding a pair of scissors. "I am donating my hair to those who have lost theirs during their chemo treatments." Her bright smile reflected a hint of nervousness and she squeezed her eyes shut, drawing a chuckle from the sea of reporters and journalists as Callie cut straight across the beautiful hair, bringing it to just barely shoulder length. "And Callie is going to do the same." Jackie grinned more enthusiastically as someone else stepped forward to cut Callie's own long blonde hair.

"Second on my to do list," she got back to business. "Just a few months ago, parts of the city was destroyed when one of Pumadyne's inventions went haywire. And, unfortunately, it wasn't the first time this happened. In light of that mishap, we are organizing the first ever Scientific Research and Development Ethics committee. This committee will examine Pumadyne's current projects, as well as the plans for future projects to determine if the city's best interests are at heart. I understand that members of the scientific community are not entirely pleased with this decision and I want you to know that I have a profound respect for science and technology. I believe, however, that not everything blueprinted and hypothesized should come to fruition. This decision was made with the safety of the city in mind. With that, I turn this back over to the very capable _Mayor_ Briggs."

* * *

(3 Months After The Election)

"I can't believe you cut it," Chance tangled Jackie's short hair around his claws. It was finally growing back.

"I knew you wouldn't like it." She sighed. "But I just felt so inspired."

Chance smiled. "You're still beautiful. It was just a shock, that's all." His smile slipped however when he heard one of the kittens meowing. "It's Corey again. He's been crying all day." He got up off the couch. "Jake's been fine. He's been crawling around and playing but Corey doesn't want to do anything but sleep and cry. I can't even get him to eat."

Jackie went to the nursery and picked up her son. "What's the matter?" She cooed. "Chance, he's burning up." She looked at her husband frantically. Corey began to squirm and fight her hold, crying loudly when she didn't put him down. His meowing became gurgled as he spit up on her shoulder. Jackie laid the kitten back in his crib and went for the baby thermometer. "Christ," she muttered when it beeped. "Chance. Grab me another shirt will you? We need to go."

Jackie pulled out a clean jumper and began changing the kitten. As she removed the soiled clothing, she felt him twitch. At first she thought it was a chill. But then his tiny body began to spasm and convulse. "CHANCE!"

Her husband darted into the room holding a long sleeved shirt. "Sorry it took so long. What's wrong?"

"He's convulsing!"

Chance pulled out his phone.

After several long, worried moments, Chance told Jackie that they needed to cool him down. It took every ounce of control she had not to panic as she carried the kitten to the bathroom, where she turned on the cold water and filled the tub with only a couple of inches of water. Just as she laid Corey in the bath, Jake started to wail.

"Here," Chance gave Jackie the phone. "I'll take care of Jake."

Chance found his other, slightly younger son on the floor in the living room where he had been playing. "What's wrong, buddy?"

Jake was holding out one of his tiny paws and bawling loudly. It was bleeding. Chance looked around and saw a drinking glass on the floor. It looked like it had fallen over, hit one of the kittens' hard plastic toys and shattered. "Guess you couldn't keep letting Corey get all the attention, huh?" He gently scooped up the 6 month old. "Let's get you into the light where I can see it better." Chance held the still sobbing kitten as he pulled the first aid kit off the top of the refrigerator and then sat Jake down on the counter. He'd tightly curled his paw towards his chest. "Come on, let me see." Chance gently unfurled the paw and inspected it for glass. Seeing that it was only a cut, he cleaned it and put a bandage on it. "Alright mister reckless, let's go check on your brother." He kissed his son on the nose and picked him up again.

Jackie looked up. She was no longer on the phone. "He's stopped convulsing, but he's twitching every so often. We still need to take him to the hospital. I..." Jackie looked up at Jake. "I think you should stay here with Jake. Or call Melissa and see if she'll watch him. I don't want him to get sick too."

"I'll call Melissa. If it's something serious, I need to be there."

* * *

Chance gently stroked Corey's head. They'd expected to be given an antibiotic and hear the words 'perfectly normal.' But then the doctor clinically said 'meningitis.'

"All we can do for him is feed him fever reducers and keep him hydrated." She tried to sound comforting.

* * *

Callie was relaxing in her favorite chair with her most recently purchased book when her cellphone shrilled loudly. She pushed her glasses up on her nose as she looked at the caller ID. "Hey Jackie. What's going on?" Jackie wasn't exactly the casual conversation kind. If she called, it was important.

"What's wrong?" Callie's face reflected the anguish she was hearing on the other line. "Jackie..." Her eyes widened. "It's alright. Take as long as you need." Callie snapped her phone shut and shook her head. If having kittens made one that frantic, she was perfectly content to remain kitten-less.

* * *

Jackie had never been more relieved over a broken fever, but something still nagged at her. Corey was still twitching every so often.

"It could just be a side effect from the illness." The doctor rationalized. "Twitches are hard to diagnose. If it's something serious, he'll have them for a long time."

"Is he still contagious? I don't want to get the other one sick too."

The doctor shook her head. "No. If Jake gets sick, it's likely he caught it before hand. But if he hasn't shown any symptoms, I wouldn't worry."

* * *

"No, Melissa. I don't know what it is." Jackie's heels clicked against the stairs on her way up to her office. "I asked the doctor. They said to just keep track of it." She shouldered open the door. "Listen, if they tell me not to worry about it, I'm going to try not to worry about it. And if I have to try to not worry about it, then you need to do the same because you're just making me worry." Jackie puffed out a sigh. "I've got to go, Melissa. I'll see you around 6." She looked around the office that used to belong to Callie. It was still hard to believe that not long ago, she'd been a lowly mechanic. "And a tom," she reminded herself.

"And a tom what?"

Jackie spun on her heel. "Sorry. I was talking to myself. What brings you down here?"

"Pumadyne is fighting one of the committee's denials. This is your baby so you need to look over their claim and see if it's worth the appeal." Then Callie smiled. "And then there's this." She held up the paper. There was a photo of her on a motorcycle.

Jackie flushed, remembering that Chance had been on another bike just ahead of her. They'd gotten a sitter that night and had been enjoying a free-spirited moment. "How'd they get that photo?"

"It says it was submitted by a reader. That's not the big deal though. The big deal is that 'Kat Magazine' wants to do an editorial on you. They're calling you Megakat City's Hottest Politician."

"You mean to say I beat out the mayor? That's hard to believe." Jackie teased. "So an editorial, huh? I don't know how I feel about that."

"I think you should do it. I never got offers like that. And like I said before, it will be good to stay in the public eye, keep reminding kats of what we're doing."

"Okay. I'll do it. But on one condition." Jackie sat down in the plush desk chair and crossed her legs.

* * *

"I'm framing this." Chance held up the March issue of 'Kat.' The cover pictured his wife crouched back to back with the mayor, looking poised to attack, wearing business formal and wielding office supplies. The title read "Megakat City's New Dynamic Duo."

He shook his head and laughed. "This is just... priceless. I can't believe you did it."

"If you can't believe that, you aren't going to believe the call I got today." Jackie took the magazine and shook her head.

"What call?"

"I've been asked to appear as a guest on David Litterbin next week."

"Why?" Chance was more than a little shocked. "I mean, I know you two have been making major changes, but you're really a better guest than the latest whore pop sensation?"

"Don't get all worked up," Jackie frowned. "I was going to turn it down anyway."

"But you love Litterbin!"

"And it's awkward enough being on the cover of a magazine. There's no way I could parade around on stage. It was hard enough giving that speech during the inauguration." Jackie shifted Jake in her arms. Lately, Jake had been deciding to take up being the clingy, whiny one. And, while Corey's twitching seemed to have stopped, he was suddenly much more quiet and reserved.

"You should do it." Chance looked at the magazine. "If anything, it will be a good chance to remind kats about your cancer organization."

"What if something comes up while I'm gone? Litterbin's a live show. And I don't think Melissa would appreciate being called at 11:00 at night to babysit while you run off."

"Speaking of Melissa, I've been thinking."

"What've I told you about that?" Jackie smirked. She felt a tiny paw grab hold of some hair and pull. "What are you doing?" She cooed, making Jake giggle as she removed her hair from his grasp.

"Well I know we've been talking about what we were going to do after we pay Feral off, which won't be that much longer. And I was thinking about moving. And if we could get a big enough place, maybe pull Melissa in on this. If we had someone there all the time, then we wouldn't be worrying about having so many solo missions."

"I don't know, Chance." Jackie sighed and sat the kitten down on the living room floor. "I mean, Callie's one thing, and that was purely accidental. I know Melissa is great with the kits but this is something too big to trust to a nanny." She watched Jake crawl over to a toy truck. "And I've kind of been thinking that maybe one of us shouldn't be going out on major calls."

Chance seemed a little surprised by this. "Jackie, Swat was your idea."

"I know, but that was a long time ago. I never accounted for any of this. And it's not just our lives at stake here. What if we both go out and something terrible happens and neither one of us comes back? What about Jake and Corey? And..." she looked a little apprehensive.

"And what?"

"I've kind of been thinking that... I... well...." Jackie wished she was psychic. That way she could tell if what she was going to say was going to cause an issue. "Chance," she blew out a breath. "I think I want another kitten."

Chance felt his gut twist. "I... well... damn..."

"Yeah." Jackie agreed.

* * *

"I'd like to welcome my next guest. She's graced the most recent cover of 'Kat Magazine' and has been a major contributing party to a lot of changes in our wonderful city. Please give it up for the beautiful deputy mayor Jacquelyn Furlong."

Jackie straightened her knee length black dress before walking across the stage. She smiled at the crowd and waved the way the producer instructed before she sat on the couch next to David Litterbin's desk.

"So are you packing?"

"I beg your pardon?" Jackie was caught off guard by the question.

Litterbin held up the magazine. "I've never seen anyone make a stapler look lethal. Do you carry it in a holster?"

"Actually, I prefer to carry one of the smaller ones in my garter." Jackie played along. "You have to be careful and make sure the safety is on or you could staple your leg." She managed to hide her surprise as her comment drew a laugh from the studio audience.

"But you're a pro, right? No misfires into the legs for you, I'm sure."

"Oh never." Jackie grinned nervously.

"Okay, in all seriousness. You're married. And you've been seen in public with your husband and your kittens. You don't look like you've had one kitten, let alone two. How old are they?"

"Eight months."

"Both of them? They're twins?"

"Yes. Both boys."

"So not only did you have two kittens, you had them at the same time? What's your secret? My wife and I had our first kitten last year and she's still struggling to lose the weight."

Jackie flushed again. "Zero sugar and lots of water."

"You heard that honey! Put down the honey buns." Litterbin pointed at the camera. "Okay, so since January, you've not only put restrictions on Pumadyne's scientific freedoms, but you and Mayor Briggs have also put stricter security policies at MKC Bio Labs to prevent the misuse of toxic catalysts."

"That's correct." Jackie said. "And I don't want to take sole credit for this. While Callie was the Deputy Mayor, she told me on several occasions that she wanted to make changes, but as the deputy mayor she didn't have the kind of backing to do it. And I'm not making a slight against Mr. Manx. He really did have the city's best interests at heart; he just wasn't able to build the connections we have with other important figures."

"How do you see the city in five years? Do you think we'll still have problems with kats like Dark Kat and The Pastmaster?"

"I'd be thrilled if we could completely eradicate those problems. Realistically, however, the most we can hope for is that we make ourselves less vulnerable to their attacks. I think prevention is the best cure, honestly. Can I just interrupt your questions for a second to ask you a question of my own?"

Litterbin held up his paws. "Yes Ma'am."

"Why not the Mayor? This is the first time in history that Megakat City has been under the leadership of a she-kat. Shouldn't she be the one here telling you her plans to fix this city's problems instead of me?"

Litterbin grinned. "You know, I've asked Miss Briggs on several occasions over the years to come on my show. And every time she turns me down. That aside, everyone knows Calico Briggs. She's made several appearances in the past alongside Mayor Manx. You, however, are still somewhat of a mystery. You just sort of appeared one day at her side, not speaking, not acknowledging the cameras. And at the same time, catching everyone's attention."

"Well, I was just her assistant. I wasn't there to garner any attention."

"The fact of the matter is, Jackie. Can I call you Jackie?"

"Sure."

"You're gorgeous. There's no denying it. Did you know 'Kat' Magazine's profits tripled with the sales of this issue? In fact, if you weren't married, you'd probably be considered MKC's most desirable."

"As flattering as that is, I _am_ married and I have no intentions of changing that status." Jackie shifted uncomfortably.

"All I'm saying is, if you're wondering why everyone is so interested in you, it's got a lot to do with your looks."

"And you know, that upsets me because I'd like it to be for what I've done. I've put a huge amount of effort into cancer research and treatment. Callie and I have both made tremendous strides in drawing tourism back to the city and improving our economy. And I think the sudden drop in crime speaks for itself. If the media wants to take an interest in something, get involved. Don't leave it up to us. I'm not saying you should, you know, pretend to be a Swat Kat or an Enforcer and go out and try to take out the bad kats. Crime isn't this city's only problem. And it would help out of the media would help us bring those other problems to the public's attention."

Litterbin sort of stared at her for a moment. He was at a loss. Then he smiled. "Why don't you tell us more about this cancer program you started?"

* * *

Jackie carried her shoes as she walked quietly through the kitchen. It was well after midnight.

"You were great, baby." Chance was waiting for her.

"Thanks. And I'm not ever doing that again. Did you have any problems out of Jake?"

"Ah no. But, Corey started twitching again. And he's been making this weird gurgling sound in the back of his throat." Chance sighed. "I know I'm not usually the one to get worried, but it worries me."

Jackie collapsed on the couch and put her head in her paws. "I don't know what to do, Chance. My gut tells me there's something wrong but you remember what the doctor said."

"And it's been two months." Chance whispered but the tension in his words was tangible.

"I know that." Jackie groaned. "First thing in the morning, I'll set up an appointment and maybe they will be able to tell us something."

* * *

"Tics," Dr. Shin said softly.

"Ticks?" Chance chocked. "We don't even have any trees."

"No. Not the parasite." She sighed and looked at Jackie. She saw recognition on the mother's face. "Do either of you have a history of Tourette Syndrome in your family?"

"Not that I know of." Chance was holding Jake.

"My aunt..." Jackie gave Chance a hurt look. "I... I didn't even think about that... Are you sure?"

"Most kittens don't obviously show symptoms until they reach 7 to 10 years old, but the symptoms are usually present since before one. They just aren't as noticeable. Corey's, however, are pretty noticeable. Right now, it's just facial tics, but I wouldn't be surprised it it progressed more quickly into shoulder thrusting and kicking. That gurgling sound he makes every now and then, that's a sign too. Sometimes it's sniffling. Sometimes it's coughing."

"What can we do? Is there a drug for it?" Chance felt Jake squirming. He wanted to get down but this wasn't a place for that.

"There's no lab test that can be done to prove that he has Tourettes. And as young as Corey is, it would be better to wait until he's a little older to discuss medication."

"What about Jake? They're twins. What are the chances that he would have it too?" Jackie was holding Corey in her lap. His large blue eyes were bouncing back and forth all around the room. There wasn't a clue in his head that something was wrong with him.

"It's likely Jake will be perfectly fine. He isn't showing any symptoms now. Which is good."

Jackie let out a frustrated sigh as she stroked her kitten between the ears. "So, basically, it's just a waiting game to see if it's just a tic or if its more serious?"

Dr. Shin nodded. "There are a few complications connected to Tourettes that can help us make that judgment call. A few of those won't show up until he is a little older though. A lot of sufferers have anger control issues and have really bad social skills. More common, though, is attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder."

Jackie hugged the almost one year old closely.

* * *

Chance held his sobbing wife in his arms. He'd tried telling Jackie that it was okay. The doctor gave them a pamphlet on the effects of Tourettes, and even though it said that sufferers lived relatively normal lives, it hadn't eased her mind. "After everything," she whimpered. "We can't just... have a normal... life?" She was straddling his lap with her face buried in his neck, soaking his fur with her frustrated tears.

"Jackie, since all this started happening, what have we told each other?" He fought the urge to rock her like one of their kittens. Her response was ragged breath and a choked sob. Chance kissed her head. "Everything happens for a reason."

_**

* * *

This one's a little bit shorter. I promise I'm going somewhere with it. I just have to skip a little bit of time.**_

_**Nyte Kat.**_


	7. Chapter 7

_**I know I'm jumping ahead quite a bit here but bear with me. I got this under control. **_

_**Nyte Kat**_

_

* * *

1 1/2 Years Later_

"Corey sit still." Jackie pushed the shopping cart down the cereal isle. "You want chocolate or fruity cereal?"

"FWUITY!" Jake shouted from beside her. He was holding her paw.

"Car." Corey pointed at a picture of a car, his face ticking. "Mommy! Car!"

Jackie sighed and followed the kitten's frantic pointing to a large cardboard cutout of a race car advertising a beer brand. "Yes. I see the car. What kind of cereal do you want?"

"Fwuity one!" Jake tugged her arm.

"Okay. You can have the fruity one. But Corey gets one too, okay?"

"Daddy?" Corey asked suddenly.

"Daddy's busy. Chocolate or fruity?" Jackie put the box of fruity krunchies in the cart.

"Donuts," he jerked his head to the right and back to facing his mother in less than a millisecond.

"Corey. There aren't any donuts."

"Donuts!" Corey pushed himself up to try and show her.

"Sit." Jackie barked and looked at where he was pointing. Sure enough there was a box of cereal meant to look like donuts. "Donuts it is, then." She plucked up the box and put it in the cart. "Jake put that down."

Jake dropped the box of fruit snacks he'd picked up.

If Melissa hadn't needed the night off, she would've watched the kittens and Jackie could've been in the air with her husband. "Of course _he_ gets to save the city and I have to take the boys to the store with me."

"Mommy," Corey tugged on her sleeve to get her to look at him.

"What is it?" Jackie picked Jake up so he'd stop reaching for things.

Corey pushed his tiny paws between his legs and whined loudly.

"Of course," Jackie sighed. "I've been trying to potty train you for a month and you wait until we're at the store to start grasping it." She narrowed her eyes at the toddler. He may have been the first one born but he was a lot slower on the uptake than Jake, who'd learned to stand, walk and start talking earlier than his brother.

* * *

Chance wrapped the cut on his arm in several layers of gauze before going upstairs. He was pulling on a clean shirt just as he walked through the door. He was assaulted with the smell of dinner and the sound of one of the kittens screaming loudly. The tabby sighed and fought the urge to go back down in the hangar and get back in the jet. "And she wants another one? What the hell is wrong with her?"

"DADDY!" Jake launched himself off the couch into his dad's arms.

"Well, they are kind of cute," Chance thought to himself as he caught the excited kitten. "Hey sport! Were you good for mommy?"

Jake nodded fervently. "SEE!" He held up a shiny toy truck.

"Shh. Inside voice, remember?" Chance looked at the toy. "Wow. It looks just like my truck."

"Uh huh." Jake whispered.

"Smells like dinner's almost ready. You play. I'm going to see what mommy's making." Chance sat Jake back down on the couch and went in the kitchen. The source of the screaming was sitting on the floor, bawling loudly.

"Whoa, hey buddy, what's wrong?"

"Don't." Jackie stopped what she was doing to prevent Chance from coddling the screaming toddler. "You can scream all you want, but you aren't getting your toy back." She pointed at Corey.

"I take it he wasn't as good at the store as Jake was?" Chance was fighting the urge to pick up the screaming kitten.

"No. He was actually really good at the store. In fact, he even told me he had to use the potty." Jackie beamed proudly. "Right before you got home, however, he decided it would be a great idea to throw his new toy across the kitchen." She picked up the toy car she'd at on the sink. "It's a good thing he has your aim because he threw it really hard."

"CAR!" Corey wailed loudly.

"No." Jackie said calmly.

His lip trembled and he ticked his head. "Da-- daddy..."

Chance couldn't help it. He was more of a sucker for the crocodile tears than his wife. "Come here, buddy." He held out his arms.

Jackie sighed, but hid her smirk. She'd hoped Corey would settle down before Chance got home or the point would be lost. Her ear quirked backwards, hearing a barely muffled gasp come from her husband.

"What happened?" She stopped what she was doing and rounded on the tabby holding the now quiet kitten.

"What?" Chance played dumb.

"You gasped. What happened? Where you hurt?" She took the first aid kit down and glared at him. "Let me see."

Chance rolled up his sleeve with a resigned look on his face. "It's just a scratch."

"It's bleeding through! Corey go play." She sat him down. He started to run towards the sink. "COREY! GO PLAY!"

Corey looked up at her with curious, wide blue eyes. "Car!"

"No. Cartoons! Go!"

The kitten stubbornly reached up above his head.

Jackie left Chance's side to swat the kitten's paw. "Living room. Now!" Corey screamed loudly and darted into the living room. Shaking her head, she grabbed the first aid kit. "Did you think I wouldn't notice?"

"Was kind of hoping so," Chance grimaced as she pulled off his bandage and started butterflying the wound closed. "OW!" He jerked his arm away.

"That's what you get." Jackie finished re-bandaging the wound.

"Hey, babe," Chance's nose twitched. "I...uh... think you're burning dinner."

"Shit!" Jackie cursed and let go of his arm.

* * *

"You two are almost too big for this room." Chance was tucking Jake into bed while Jackie got Corey ready. They'd moved from cribs to little toddler beds. "Alright," he looked at his kitten, the younger twin, and ruffled the fur between his ears. "Let's see. You brushed your teeth, right?"

Jake nodded and opened his mouth to show. "And you went potty, right?" The kitten nodded again. "Then you're all set." He stood up.

"Uh! Daddy!" The kitten wailed.

"What? What am I forgetting?" Chance stroked his chin in thought.

"Da-ddy!" Jake whined louder.

"OH yeah!" Chance grinned broadly and gave the kitten a loud kiss on the cheek.

"Love you, daddy." Jake hugged him.

"Love you too, sport. Sleep tight, okay?"

"Kay."

Chance got up and turned to look at the oldest of the twins. Corey was giving Jackie a hard time. Instead of getting into a bed without a hassle, he was grabbing things from the toy bin. Jackie blew out an irritated sigh and scooped the kitten up and sat him in bed. "Not tonight, Corey." He was always so wound up and into everything.

"Come on kiddo, let mommy have a break, okay?" Chance gently stroked Corey's cheek. The kitten looked up at him. "Not sweepy..." he whined.

"That's too bad. It's bed time."

Corey sulked but laid down regardless. Chance gave him a kiss on the cheek just the same. "No nightmares, okay?"

Corey nodded.

Jackie kissed her boys as well.

"What?" Chance asked Jackie as he turned on the nightlight, flipped the switch and halfway closed the door.

"Nothing," Jackie smiled, her heart suitably melted. "It's just, you know, those two have you wrapped around their tiny little claws."

"Nah," he smiled. "You're seeing things." Chance put his paw on the small of her back as they went back into the living room. It was still too early for them to turn in. He felt her lean into his touch and couldn't resist playfully nibbling on one of her ears. "You hear that?" He purred.

"Hear what?" Jackie froze.

"Exactly," Chance licked the thin, velvety inner part of her ear, drawing a tremble out of her body. "We should take advantage of it."

"What... ah..." Jackie tried to focus her thoughts around the teasing of his tongue. "What did you have in mind?"

Chance simply chuckled and lowered his paw to grope her butt as he moved around to face her. Jackie lowered her amber eyes to his belt line and smirked. "So, um, your place or mine, handsome?"

Chance grinned and, in spite of his injury, scooped her up. "Mine'll do."

Jackie fought the urge to squeal as he swept her off her feet and carried her down the hall, closing the door with his foot. She was still in her tight black pencil skirt and matching button up blouse from work. Chance made short work of the zipper on the back as he placed her on the bed. "Tell me something," he whispered hungrily as he took in the matching underwear.

"Hmm?" Jackie closed her eyes as his paws caressed her inner thighs.

"Do good girls wear black?"

Her eyes opened lazily and she smiled darkly. "No," she purred. "They most certainly do not."

"In that case, you must be very," Chance ducked his head between her legs. "_Very_," he ripped through the black lace with his claws, "bad."

Jackie had to bite down on one of her knuckles to keep from crying out. It felt like he was lapping at a bowl of expensive cream. She bucked her hips and started to grind against his face. He brought her right to the edge and then stopped and moved upwards. Before he could slip inside of her, Jackie pushed him back. "Oh no you don't. Two can play at that game," she rasped and moved away from him, swiftly positioning herself in front of his lap. A moment of fear crept up inside of her. Since the change, she hadn't even considered doing this. And Chance hadn't asked it of her. She gave him a dark look and then tenderly dragged her tongue up his shaft, eliciting a surprised gasp from him before she took him into her mouth. It was a new experience and her jaw protested the movement but the moans of pleasure she was receiving spurred her on. Chance worked a paw into her hair, careful not to push her head down, though it was hard not to. She was moving slowly, carefully and gradually testing the waters. Chance swallowed the hard lump forming in his throat as her lips inched painfully slow down his length. Suddenly, he felt the back of her throat and he had to grip the bedsheets. Jackie chuckled around him as she felt the building pressure in his body. She tasted pre-cum as she slid her mouth back and looked up at him. "Payback's a bitch, huh?"

"You're damn right it is," he growled and pulled her onto the bed. Without any warning, he put her on her back and drove into her.

Jackie let out a startled gasp that quickly turned into moans and meows of pleasure as he worked in and out of her. "I don't know _where_... you learned to.... do that... but..." Chance panted. "God damn it..."

Jackie couldn't help but arch her back. It was too difficult to keep her legs wrapped around her husband's waist. Instead, she dug her claws into his back.

"Gah..." Chance wasn't prepared for the extra sensation at all and it sent him over the edge immediately. Jackie let out her own surprised gasp and her body responded by clenching tightly.

"We're... we're gonna hafta... find a bigger place..." Chance panted. "Because... this is just too small for three kits."

* * *

(Six Months Later)

"Mommy I'm hungwy." Jake whined.

"I know baby. We're going to meet daddy for dinner just as soon as I get those papers from my office." Jackie let go of Jake's paw long enough to press the call button for the elevator. She wasn't dare letting go of Corey's, not the way he kept tugging her arm trying to get away. And his ticking and twitching had worsened. And spread to his speech. It was Thursday. And Jackie realized after she'd picked up the boys from their sitter that she'd forgotten something she'd promised Callie would be finished by the morning. By the time she'd returned to City Hall, it was empty and quiet. Well except for the sound of her heels on the polished floors and the noise her two kits couldn't go without making.

The doors slid open. Jackie gently tugged the kittens into the empty elevator car with her. The doors slid shut and she pressed the button for her floor. She let go of their paws to comb her hair out of her face. Corey immediately ran towards the buttons. "Hey!" She snatched his paw before he could touch it.

"MOMMY! I WANNA PRESS IT!" Corey screamed.

"I don't care." Jackie said impatiently. Before he could work himself into a tantrum over it, however, they reached her floor. "Come on," she pulled them down the hall to her office.

"WOW!" Jake said loudly and raced Corey to the large windows.

Corey's face ticked and he hit the window with his paw loudly. Jackie snapped her head up from her desk. She pointed at the kitten but her face softened when she saw the apologetic look he was giving her. Footsteps echoed outside in the hall and all three heads jerked towards the door.

"Probably just the cleaning crew," Jackie smiled back at her kittens as her office door swung open. "Hey Rosi...ta..." The last part of the name came out as a quiet squeak.

"Get on the ground!" A kat in a black ski mask pointed a semi-automatic weapon at her from the door. Jackie's eyes widened and her claws curled underneath the edge of the desk and pressed the button to alert the Swat Kats.

"NOW!" He barked and swung the gun to point at the two kittens by the window.

Jackie immediately obeyed, putting her arms in the air as she walked back around the desk. "Whatever you want. Just let my kittens go."

"ON YOUR KNEES! And NO ONE leaves this room until I get what I want!" He seethed. His voice didn't even sound remotely familiar. Another pair of masked kats came in behind him and locked the door.

"Entrance is covered. No one comes in and no one goes out without us knowing." One said, handing the kat with the gun a black short range radio.

"Good," the one with the gun said. "Get those kits tied up. I'll get Mrs. Furlong."

Jackie felt a new wave of terror at the realization that they knew who she was but she didn't know who they were. "They're just kittens!" She shrieked. "What threat are they to you?"

"They're our leverage. If you think we're above hurting a kit, you're wrong." The one wielding a roll of duct tape chuckled.

Jake was frozen in place as his wrists were tightly taped together. He shot his mother a terrified look, blue eyes spilling over with tears. "Mommy...?"  
"Just hold still sweetie. You're going to be just fine." She looked anxiously from Jake to Corey.

A sudden hiss erupted from Corey's throat and he twisted violently.

"Get that retarded one tied up, you idiot!" The one at the door shouted pointing at the kitten with his gun.

"He's not retarded," Jackie snarled. "He can't help it; you're scaring him!"

The masked kat turned the gun on Jackie and fired at the floor beside her. She gasped and fought the urge to leap closer to her kittens.

Jake made a whimpering sound and Corey started screaming loudly. Jackie immediately looked at her kittens. Her heart sank at the small puddle forming around Jake's sneakers.

"What the hell is wrong with this boy?" The kat that had been trying to restrain Corey swore loudly as the kitten kicked and screeched in his grasp.

"LET HIM GO!" Jackie shouted. "Just LET HIM GO! HE'S GOT FUCKING TOURETTE'S! HE CAN'T HELP IT!" Tears spilled down her cheeks and all three masked kats stared at her. "Just tell me what the fuck you want."

"You see, Jackie. I can call you 'Jackie,' can't I?"

Jackie glared at him.

"You're little 'ethics committee' decided that my ideas weren't civilized enough to approve. In fact, they thought my ideas were so terrible, they canned my entire project team and eliminated my position." He got in Jackie's face and tucked the muzzle of the gun under her chin. "You have kittens, Mrs. Furlong. You know what it takes to feed a family."

"What were you working on?" Jackie asked quietly.

"I was going to change the world, Jackie! I was going to change everything and you... you took that from me!"

Jackie cut her eyes from the kat forcing her chin up to her kittens. Corey was curled up in a corner, making terrible hissing and gasping sounds, kicking out his leg and twisting his neck.

"Look at me!"

Jackie clenched her jaw. "What were you working on? I can't help you if you don't tell me."

"Global power. Total global power through the use of anti-matter."

Her eyes widened. "Anti-matter? As in highly unstable and extremely volatile anti-matter? There isn't a facility large enough in the city to create it."

"Oh but there is. Far beneath the city streets, Jackie, is a particle accelerator and we'd almost worked the bugs out of it when your committee sank their teeth into it."

"You _almost_ worked the bugs out? How long were you working on that before it became clear to the committee what you were doing?"  
"Six years. Six years completely wiped down the drain. Do you have any idea how important that experiment was?"

"As a matter of fact I do. And let me remind you that, had an experiment like that gone wrong, you could have leveled more than just the city. Thousands of kats lives were at risk. Why didn't you propose building the structure in the badlands or in the desert where the only ones in danger would've been yourselves?"

"Because the project was denied from the start. We had to do this under the radar. But we finally got on the right track, finally started making progress and your little uppity snobs started digging around and snooping."

"And you think that by holding me hostage, I'm going to be able to change their minds?"  
"This isn't about changing their minds. I'm blacklisted now. It doesn't matter what you get them to do. You ruined my life."

"You ruined your own life." Jackie hissed.

The gun-kat brought the gun up and hit her hard across the face with it. Jackie tasted blood in her mouth, but ignored the pain when her kittens started screaming again.

"Shut up!" One of the cohorts snarled at the toddlers raising his paw to slap the twitching one.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." A deep angry voice rumbled from across the room.

Jackie looked up to see a large masked tabby clad in a red and blue flight suit with his glovatrix pointed squarely at the kat threatening her kits. The kat that had been watching the door was on the ground and not moving.

Jackie didn't hesitate. With her attacker momentarily distracted by the Swat Kat, she grabbed his gun in one paw and his shoulder with the other. Then she forced the weapon up against his face hard enough to crack his nose. Jackie jerked the weapon from his paws and tossed it across the room before moving swiftly over to her boys. She locked eyes with T-Bone, silently telling him that she was fine. Then, as the vigilante started to restrain the one that had been holding the deputy mayor at gunpoint, Jackie turned her gaze onto the one that had tied up her kittens. Fire burned in her veins as she leaped up and delivered a hard kick to his chin, snapping his head sideways. "That's for calling my baby a retard," she seethed and then began to cut through the tape binding Jake's paws. He wrapped his arms around her neck and squeezed her tightly. "It's okay," she soothed. "It's all over." The kitten clung to her as she went over to where Corey was still quivering. "Jake," she peeled the kitten back from her so that she could look at him. "I need you to be brave for a little longer so I can take care of your brother, okay?" Jake nodded and let go of her.

T-Bone had all the kats restrained in a matter of moments. They were cake, and, had the kittens not been involved, he had no doubt Jackie would've been able to handle it. He looked over at one of his sons staring wide eyed at him.

"You okay, sport?"

Jake nodded dumbly, his mouth hanging slightly open. T-Bone felt a surge of pride. Jake looked passed him at the unmoving kats and a look of confusion crossed his small features. "You killed them..?" His blue eyes shimmered with tears and the swat kat felt his pride turn to guilt. "No, son. They're just sleeping. The Swat Kats would never take someone's life." He knelt in front of the kitten and gently squeezed his shoulder, easily feeling the tremors under the fur. T-Bone looked up at Jackie cradling Corey in her arms. He wasn't screaming anymore, but he was violently kicking out his leg and thrusting out his arm in a way that made it look like he was fighting to get free from the tight grasp around him.

"The Enforcers will be here any minute." T-Bone squeezed Jake's shoulder one last time before moving over to Jackie and Corey. He laid a gentle paw on the twitching kitten and used the other to tilt his wife's chin up. "Are you alright?" Her lips were swollen and split. She nodded sharply.

"What is it with this job?" He hissed, drawing a stressed chuckle from the she-kat. They both looked up at the sound of sirens.

"You better go," Jackie's voice was raw. "Thank you," she squeezed his paw before letting him leave. It wasn't long after T-Bone left that she heard Enforcers in the hall talking about one unconscious outside. Then they were in her office, asking questions and cuffing the already restrained attackers.

* * *

Chance already had some clean clothes laid out for Jake when they got home. "Daddy I saw a swat kat!" The kitten exclaimed excitedly.

"Really?" He helped the toddler out of his wet clothes and into clean dry ones.

"They scared bubby." Chance smiled a little at Jake's nickname for his brother. He had trouble pronouncing words with an 'r' in them. Jackie had tried to teach him 'brother' but that had somehow come across as 'bubby' and it stuck. "But the Swat kat came in and stopped 'em! And, daddy, mommy was soooo cool! She was a ninja!"

"A ninja? Mommy? No." He sighed and looked at the toddler. "You know, I was so scared when I heard you and Corey and Mommy were in trouble." Chance pulled the kitten close and squeezed him tight.

"You get scared?" Jake sounded disbelieving.

"All the time." Chance said quietly.

"I was scared too, daddy. They were mean."

"And they are going to be in jail for a long time." Chance scooped him up. "Come on, sport. Let's go see how Corey is."

"Daddy! The Swat Kat called me sport TOO!" Jake got excited again.

"He did?" Chance grinned.

"Uh huh!"

"Well isn't that something?" He sat Jake down in a kitchen chair and looked at Corey. He was blinking repeatedly and pulling on one of his sleeves. "Hey kiddo," Chance gently placed a paw on the one grabbing at the clothing. Corey looked up.

"Daddy," His head ticked and he hissed in the back of his throat. "Why?"

"Those were really bad kats, Corey." Chance sighed. The stress of the day was clearly manifesting itself in the kitten's movements. He wished he could put his swat kat uniform back on and beat down what was wrong with his son the way he so easily took care of the kats that held them hostage. "But everything's okay now. I promise."

Corey seemed to struggle with a thought for a moment before launching himself into his father's arms. Chance held Corey tightly with one arm and reached around to pull Jake into the hug too. He closed his eyes and breathed in their scent. "These kittens are my life," he thought. "I don't know what I'd do without them." His throat tightened and he looked up at Jackie. She'd been leaning quietly against the kitchen counter for some time. Chance tipped his head, motioning her over. Jackie was trembling just as badly as her kittens had been. She reached a claw out and rubbed away a tear Chance didn't seem to have noticed before she dropped down to the height of her kittens and squeezed them both just as tightly as Chance.

(One Year Later)

Jackie walked from the back porch of the old farm house through the large overgrown field of a backyard to an ancient barn sitting just inside a wooden fence. She gripped one of the rotting old doors and heaved it open. The late afternoon sunlight filtered in, illuminating the dirty surface of an old crop duster. She smiled and pulled out her cellphone as she walked back to the house, rubbing her pregnant belly with the free paw.

Chance picked up on the second ring.

"I found a place. And it's perfect."

_**Almost done with this story. Hope you enjoyed this one. It was kind of lackluster too.**_

_**NK**_


	8. Chapter 8

_**Jumping ahead again. Sorry. Actually, I'm not sorry.**_

* * *

(Two Years Later)

Chance closed up the shop and set the internal alarms. Feral was paid off. He and Jackie had put in extra long hours at the yard to get it set up as a second base of operations rather than a primary. The salvage yard was actually closer to the city than their house in the country. Because of this, they decided it would be more suitable for repairs if their vehicles were damaged in combat. It was also larger and easier to house a jet. Jackie worked out plans to have remote access to the Turbokat from home. Autopilot didn't just mean 'look ma, no paws' any more. It meant that while they were coming from home, the Turbokat could go through launch sequences and take off on it's own. All they had to do was hit the inconspicuous ramp just outside the back of the yard and the jet would get into docking position. He went out side and got into his new truck. It had been an anniversary present from Jackie. The tow truck was good and all but it just wasn't that great to look at. And the new one was so much easier to retrofit with the Thunder truck's technology. The transition from average extended cab 4 by 4 with a hemi to indestructible machinery was nearly flawless.

When Chance got passed the gates, he got out and went over to a keypad. He punched in a code and the automatic gates slid shut with a hiss. "Business hours are over," he grinned and got back in the cab of the truck. If he was lucky, he'd beat Jackie home and get to see his boys before they got smothered by their mother. Today, he smiled, had been their first day of kindergarten. And, boy oh boy, did Jackie cry when they were ready to go, standing outside with their little backpacks and lunch boxes, looking near identical except for Jake's blonde tipped ears and Corey's ticking, twitching and occasional vocal spasm. His smile widened as he thought about his beautiful kitten with her mother's eyes and his blond fur playing with Melissa until he got home.

Melissa, he decided, had been a lifesaver. "I don't ask questions, Mr. Furlong." She'd said when he'd asked if she'd be willing to be a live in nanny with the promise of never asking why he and Jackie had to leave suddenly sometimes. And true to her word, she had neither asked nor snooped around. And they would know if she did.

Chance's black truck kicked up gravel and dust up the long driveway lined with trees. The old farmhouse was far from any other residential or commercial area. It stood two stories high with just enough rooms for everyone to have their own space, including Melissa. There was a basement that gave way to a fallout shelter some manic had built in the 50's when the world stood on the brink of war. He and Jackie quickly used that to build the new hangar. The property was a sprawling 15 acres, half of which was fenced in. That was were the barn sat, with his project plane. The old crop duster. He hadn't had much time to work on it, but Chance wasn't in a hurry to get it off the ground. It was like rebuilding a classic car. It was more about the journey than the destination.

Melissa's car was there. Jackie's wasn't.

Chance grinned and went up the steps to the large front porch and opened the door.

"Who is it, Marley? Who's at the door?" He heard Melissa say from the living room. Immediately, a blond toddler with her hair in sloppy pigtails, wearing a cute little blue dress came running. "Daddy!"

Chance's grin could barely fit on his face. "There's my angel!" He scooped her up and kissed her on the nose. "The boys upstairs, Mel?"

"They are." The young she-kat was wearing jeans and had her hair tied up in a bandanna. She was part nanny, part housekeeper. With three kits, one needed both.

"Jake! Corey!" Chance yelled up the stairs. "Come on! I wanna know how school was!"

Jake immediately came bounding down the stairs holding a piece of paper. "Hey sport. What'd mom say about running on the steps?"

The kitten jerked to a stop and then finished coming down more slowly.

"So? How was it?"

"Daddy it was fun! We got to finger paint and stuff. And look!" He held up the sheet. In messy red paint he'd written his name.

"This is going on the fridge for mommy to see." Chance took it proudly to the kitchen. Once it was firmly in place he turned back to his son. "Where's Corey? I wanna put his up here too."

Jake bit his lip. "Corey got in trouble."

"He did?" Chance was worried something would happen. They'd tried to explain to the teacher before school began that he had some problems. "What happened?" He laid a paw on the kit's shoulder as they walked back towards the stairs.  
"He said a bad word. And he wouldn't draw his name." Jake frowned. "Daddy, some of the other kits were mean to him."

"How were they mean?" Chance stopped and squatted down so he was eye level with Jake.

Jake looked down at his shoes. "This one boy... he called Corey stupid. And Corey got mad and threw his paint at him. Miss Jenkins was real mad. She made him sit in time out."

"Who? Corey or the other kit?"

"Corey." Jake had a frustrated look on his face. "It wasn't his fault."

Chance sighed and stood back up. "Hey why don't you go watch TV with Melissa and Marley? Mommy will be home soon."

Jake nodded and went downstairs. For a five year old, he was really perceptive and a quick learner.

* * *

"Corey," Chance pushed open the door to his other son's room.

The kitten was standing in front of a shelf where all his miniature cars were displayed. With a frustrated look on his face, he was rearranging the cars. His shoulder jerked forwards and went slack and his neck twitched. "Whatcha doing, kiddo?"

Corey blinked as he looked up and then back at his cars. Then he looked back up, holding a teal Charger. "This one," he hissed. "It doesn't go."

"Is it broken?" Chance took the car and looked at it. It seemed fine.

"No." Corey threw out a paw and hit the shelf. "Look!"

Chance looked at the shelf and frowned. "Oh." Corey had put all the cars into groups of three based on their color.

"And... and these ones too." Corey pointed at couple other odd colored cars.

"I see." Chance took the other cars too. 'Funny' he thought. 'The rest of his room is a disaster.' "Corey. What happened at school today?"

"What's 'retarded' mean?" He looked up with glittery blue eyes.

"Where'd you hear that word?" Chance barely kept the anger out of his voice.

"Miss Jenkins," he had a strained look on his face, as if he was trying to keep from twitching or making a noise.

"Did she say that to you?"

Corey sat down on the floor suddenly and kicked the bottom of the shelf. It didn't do anything more than rattle the cars. "No. She pointed at me. I think she was mad."

"Why was she mad?"

"I said the," he hissed. "I said the 's' word by accident. A-and I didn't draw what I was s'posed to."

"Can I see what you drew?"

Corey shook his head.

"Why not?"

"She took it." His head ticked and he kicked the shelf again. "Daddy? Am I," hiss "Am I re... retarded?"

"No," Chance said sternly. "And that's a bad word. I don't want to hear you say it, okay?"

Corey nodded. "I'm sorry." He whispered, his tears spilling out.

Chance gently pulled the kitten into a tight hug. "It's not your fault. You didn't do anything wrong. Alright? Mommy and I are going to have a talk with your teacher." He heard the door downstairs and Jake shout. She wasn't going to be pleased. Chance carefully picked up the five year old and carried him downstairs.

Jackie had her arms around Jake and was looking him over with worried eyes.

"Mommy I wrote my name!" Jake excitedly pushed himself out of her arms and grabbed her paw. "Daddy put it on the fridge!"

Jackie gasped when she saw the finger painted sloppy letters. "Wow. This is really good, Jake!" Suddenly she had something grasping her around her leg. "Hey Marley." She cooed and picked up the kitten. "Where you good for Mel?"

Marley nodded, her little pigtails bouncing. "That's my girl. How about a snack?" Jackie held the kitten on her hip as she walked to the cookie jar. She pulled out three cookies and gave one to each of her present kittens. She looked at the extra cookie and sighed. "Now where is the other one?" Right on cue, Chance came into the kitchen, carrying Jake's twin.

"We need to talk," he said, his voice laced with anger.

* * *

"The problem, Mrs. Furlong, is that he doesn't listen. Everything I told him to do, he started to do but then went off in his own little world. I have to ask, is he medicated?"

"Medicated? Of course he's medicated." Jackie hissed. They weren't able to schedule a time to talk to the teacher until after the first week of school. She'd told Chance to let her do the talking. That he would only lose his temper and make things worse. But Miss Jenkins was being unreasonable.

"Then I think maybe he should be put in a special program. One with other kittens like him."

"You mean something slower?" Jackie narrowed her eyes. "He just has a little trouble picking things up."

"He's the only one that couldn't write his name. He's going to be behind."

"He can write his name," Jackie crossed her arms over her chest. "You have to be patient with him."

"And I have 15 other kittens that all need my attention. If he needs the extra help, he's not going to get it in a regular program." The teacher sighed. "You can take time to decide if you want, but keep in mind that the longer it is before he's in a situation more suitable for his condition, he will continue to fall behind."

"If it's all the same to you, Miss Jenkins, I think Corey is perfectly normal and will be just fine once he adapts." Jackie stood up and gave Chance a near scathing look. "I think we're done."

* * *

"Missa!" Marley tugged on Melissa's pants.

"Hmm?" Melissa stooped down and picked up the toddler.

"Eat." She said softly.

"Hungry?" Melissa said.

"Eat," the kitten nodded.

"Not yet. We have to go pick up your brothers."

"Why?" Marley pouted.

"Because it would be rude to eat without them." Melissa slipped on her flip flops and headed for the door. She carried Marley out to the car and fastened her in the car seat. It was a fairly long drive to the school because of how far removed the house was. The school bus didn't even run that far out. Melissa pulled into the pickup area just as the morning kindergarten class was dismissed. Immediately she saw Jake running to the car. But not Corey.

"Hey Lissa!" He panted as he slid into the middle of the backseat.

"Hey Jake. Where's your brother?"

Jake excited smile melted away. "Um..." The kitten leaned over the car seat to look out the window. "He was next to me. I swear, Lissa!"

"Then we better go find him." Melissa got out of the car and got Marley up. Jake scrambled back out and followed her into the school.

After frantically checking classrooms with the help of the principal and Miss Jenkins, Melissa clumsily pulled out her cellphone. First she called Jackie. Barely able to keep the hysteria of losing Corey out of her voice, she told the mother that her son was gone. Then she called Chance. Then she waited.

Jackie got to the school several minutes before Chance. Her tires screeched loudly as she slammed on the breaks. She was out of the car before she even had the engine off.  
"We've searched the whole school and the playground from top to bottom," Mr. MacFurson, the elderly principal told her.

"I don't understand. Where else could he have gone? He's five! Are you sure you checked _everywhere_?" Jackie was well into tearing the principal off a strip for losing her kitten when Chance stormed into the lobby.

"Who saw him last?"

"I did, daddy." Jake said quietly. "I swear he was with me. I'm sorry, daddy."

"Where was he with you?" Chance knelt down in front of his small son.

Jake made a face. He was thinking really hard. "When... when the bell rang."

Sighing, Chance took Jake's paw. "Show me where you were?"

The kitten led him through the school to the kindergarten rooms. "Here," he said softly, standing in the threshold of the classroom.

Chance made a face and looked around. There was door leading to the outside directly across from the classroom. He opened it and looked around. Immediately, his eyes traveled through the playground to the fence. Jackie slipped out the door and followed his line of sight. Just beyond the fence was a shimmering pond.

"You don't think...?" She didn't have to say it. The kittens couldn't swim yet. Jackie darted down the short steps, taking off her heels so she could run.

"Jake, go back to Melissa." Chance took off after his wife, panting as he reached the fence. "Do you... see him...?"

Jackie shook her head, her hair falling loose. She grabbed a hold of the fence, intending to climb over it, when it wobbled. Without much work at all, the broken part slid open just enough for someone really small to get by, barely pulling at the weeds attached to it. It had been opened before.

Chance held the fence portion open enough for Jackie to slip through. Then he worked himself passed it.

"Corey!" Jackie shouted as she ran towards the water, a deep ball of fear tightening in her stomach. "COREY!"

Chance moved in a different direction, towards a small clearing in a group of trees. A splash of color caught his eye. "Jackie over here!" He shouted as he ran towards the figure curled up on the trunk of a fallen tree. At first, he thought the kitten wasn't moving. But as he moved closer, he saw one of his legs jerk and kick against the rotting wood. Then he heard the crying, intermittent with hissing and choked sounding vocal spasms. "Corey?" Chance gently stroked the boy's dark fur. "What are you doing out here?"

He sniffled and jerked his head away from Chance's paw. "GO AWAY!" Corey shouted and curled in on himself.

Jackie ignored the outburst, scooping him up as soon as she reached the tree and holding him tightly. "Thank goodness," she sank to the ground, scratching him behind the ears and rocking him in spite of his kicking and twitching. She was undeterred by his screaming and hissing. "I DON'T WANNA 'hiss' GO BACK!" Corey screamed.

"What happened, kiddo?" Chance situated himself on the ground so that Corey could see him.

"THEY'RE MEAN!" Corey buried his face in his mother's shirt. "Mommy PLEASE DON'T 'hiss' MAKE ME GO!"

"Who's mean to you, baby?" Jackie didn't care that she was sitting on the damp ground in her nice clothes.

Instead of answering, the kitten erupted in another heartbreaking sob.

"Corey," she soothed. "Come on. It's alright. Just calm down and tell me what happened."

"Miss... Miss Jenkins... she... she... she..." Corey's neck ticked and he hissed loudly. "She... she made me miss play time... and...'hiss' and this other boy... he... he said it's cuz I'm... I'm stupid.... and... and then Miss Jenkins was... was... making us read... 'hiss' and then... she... she got mad again.... Mommy I hate it. I hate it, Mommy." He hissed a few more times during his jumbled explanation of the day's events.

Jackie held the boy tightly and looked at Chance.

"Jackie, babe, maybe that teacher's right. Maybe this is too much for him." Chance reasoned.

Jackie sighed. She didn't want to do this. She didn't want to make him feel any more different than he already was. "Maybe. We can talk about it later. Let's go home, Corey." Chance reached down to pick up the kitten and carried him back to the school.

* * *

Jackie held one of Corey's tiny cinnamon colored paws in hers as she looked around the brightly colored room. It was smaller than the kindergarten classroom and had only a couple of small round tables with bright red plastic chairs. She gave Chance an anxious look.

"Mrs. Furlong?" A she-kat in a long flowy, bright yellow skirt and a brown tunic with a bright rainbow on it smiled brightly. "I'm Kila Longfur." She held out a small chocolate brown paw. Jackie forced a smile on to her face. "You can call me Jackie."

Kila gave Chance a polite nod and then dropped down to eye level with Corey. "And you must be Corey."  
Corey nodded shyly, ducking behind his mother.

Kila's bright smile widened and she pointed to a play area near the window. "Why don't you go over there and play while I talk to your mom and dad."

Corey looked up for permission.

"It's okay." Jackie smiled reassuringly at her son. "Go ahead." She resisted the urge to clamp down on his paw and hold him close. The kitten scampered over to a large plastic bin filled with blocks.

Chance replaced his son's grip with his own and they followed Kila over to one of the tables.

"Have a seat?" The tiny she-kat sat comfortably in one of the tiny chairs.

"You're kidding, right?" Chance looked down at the kitten sized seat.

Jackie chuckled and situated herself in one, folding her legs to the side. Chance awkwardly sat down, his knees awfully close to his chest.

"I know this must be awfully stressful for you two." The teacher folded her paws in front of her and met each of their eyes in turn.

"You have no idea," Jackie sighed.

"Actually," Kila was still smiling. "I do. My son has Tourette's as well."

Jackie blushed and shot Chance an embarrassed look. It wasn't often she put her foot in her mouth.

"It's alright." Kila seemed to read her thoughts. "You should know that it gets easier. It just takes patience." She made a sweeping motion with her paw. "There are only 6 students in my class, 7 if you decide this is what you want for Corey. I've been teaching for fifteen years. And," she rapped her knuckles against the smooth wood surface of the table. "I haven't had a kitten that I couldn't reach."

Jackie winced as Corey hissed loudly and knocked his blocks to the floor with unnecessary force.

"Look, I'm not questioning your teaching abilities. Corey... well, he has a little trouble focusing, and..."

"And he doesn't seem to listen?" Kila finished. "You've probably asked him a thousand times to pick up his toys only to find him drawing on the walls?"

"Important city documents... but that's close enough." Jackie frowned.

"He's not a bad kitten," Chance interjected. "He just... we've tried teaching him on our own. And he seems to get it but then when we come back to it later, it's like we didn't even try." He sighed. "He's got a twin brother that can already say his alphabet backwards and count to a hundred. Jake's reading at a second grade level. But Corey..."

"He's a little behind," Kila shrugged. "It's not that big of a deal. Kit's with Tourette's sometimes have accompanying attention disabilities. My son has ADHD, and it's no so bad now that he's in high school but when he was that young, it took a different way of thinking. We just need to figure out what keeps his focus."

A soft pinging sound reached their ears.

Corey had clearly found a toy piano. For a moment, he pressed the keys, testing each one and hearing its sound. He giggled. Then hissed and ticked his head. A rare look of intense concentration crossed the kitten's face. And he placed his paws at opposite ends of the brightly colored plastic keys.

Jackie and Chance had resumed their discussion with Kila when the familiar song reached her ears. "Is that..."

"... Chopsticks?" Chance finished. Both parents jerked their heads back around to look at the five year old.

Corey stopped playing and looked up. "Sorry," he apologized immediately and kicked the toy away.

"No," Chance got up and went over to him. "Can you do it again?"

Jackie sat in stunned silence. 'Maybe,' she thought. 'This is going to be perfect for him.'

Corey gave his father a nervous look, afraid he was going to be in trouble, as he reached over and pulled the small plastic piano back in front of him. Hesitantly, he slowly played the tune again.

"Where'd you learn that?" Chance gently stroked the boy's head.

"Um..." Corey twitched. "It was on 'hiss' Twistin' Kittens."

Chance blinked dumbly at his son. "On what?"

"That show, Chance," Jackie finally pulled herself from her stupor. "The one with the four kats that wear different colors and they sing a whole bunch of songs; I think there's a pirate and a dinosaur too."

Chance winced. He hated that show. But he put up with it because it kept Corey sitting still for thirty minutes.

It wasn't much longer, and Corey was signed up. When it was time to go, he gripped the toy tightly and shook his head. "Corey," Jackie sighed. "You have to leave it here. You'll be back tomorrow."

"NO!" He wailed. "I like 'hiss' it!"

"Then we'll get you one. But this one isn't yours. Now put it down and tell Mrs. Longfur thank you for letting you play."

Corey started to argue. Jackie gave him a firm look and held up one claw.

"But..." he whimpered, silencing when claw number two came up. Corey looked up at his father. Chance raised his eyebrows, his silent way of saying 'if you don't listen to your mom, you're in a world of trouble.' His shoulder twitched forward as he took the toy back to the bin. Corey squeezed his eyes shut as his face ticked. He made a noise that sounded an awful lot like 'shit' and it got him a glare. He trudged back over to his parents.

"And?" Jackie gave the kitten an expectant look.

Corey looked up blankly.

"What did I tell you to do?" She asked softly.

"To... to put the toy back..." Corey pointed at the toy bin.

"And?"

"And... and... and..." Corey's eyes darted back and forth in thought. He hissed and kicked the floor. "Um... and to... um...."

Jackie smiled patiently at her son's valiant effort to remember. "Thank Mrs. Longfur for letting you play."

Corey gasped softly. "Thank you Misses Longfur for letting me play." He repeated carefully. Jackie scratched him between the ears, a silent 'good boy.'

* * *

"Marley! MARLEY DON'T..." Melissa winced as the toddler dumped her plastic plate of food onto the floor. She glared at the kitten.

"Uh oh..." Marley said innocently.

"Uh oh, my tail. You did that on purpose." Melissa pointed at the kitten in the booster chair as she knelt to pick up the food. As she was on the floor, she caught sight of pieces of food between Jake and Corey. Standing back up, she glared at the twins. "Eat your green beans."

"But we did," Jake whined.

"No you didn't. They're all on the floor." Melissa sighed.

"Where's mommy?" Corey asked instead of fighting the nanny over vegetables. He wasn't going to eat them no matter how mad she got.

"They had to go do something really important." Melissa glared once more at the two year old, trying to dump the contents of her sippy cup.

"What did they have to do?"

"I honestly don't know." Melissa sighed tiredly. "Jake... drop that green bean on the floor and you don't get a cookie for dessert."

Jake gave the bean a disgusted look and dropped it on his plate.

* * *

"Razor LOOK OUT!" T-Bone shouted, firing an octopus missile at a creepling.

Razor flipped backwards just as the little pink demon was nailed to the wall. Since the changes made to the city, the only enemy they couldn't seem to get rid of was Dark Kat. The city would need a protective bubble to keep him out.

"You fools," Dark Kat laughed. "You can't stop me." He fired a blaster at the earthen ceiling above the Swat Kats, causing it to cave in.

T-Bone shoved Razor out of the way.

"T-Bone!" The masked she-kat gasped as large pieces of stone and earth fell on top of her partner. With a snarl of anger, she fired several mini baby boomers at Dark Kat, but he was gone. "FUCK!" She swore loudly and started to frantically dig her partner out. "Come on... T-Bone... say something..." She begged for a noise just to let her know that she was close, that he was still alive. The rocks cut her paws as she gripped them and tossed them behind her. Finally, she felt something that wasn't stone or clay. It was fabric. T-Bone had landed on his stomach. Quickly, she removed the rest of the rubble from his body, wincing at the twisted angle of one of his legs. The large tabby let out a groan and started to push himself up.

"ARGH!" He snarled, recoiling from the pain.

"Try not to move. I think your leg's broken." She ordered, but he didn't listen as he pushed himself up and quickly onto one foot.

"Shit," T-Bone swore. "Shit, shit shit! Gah that HURTS!"

Razor looked up at the open sky above them. "I think that's our way out. And you need a hospital."

T-Bone hobbled weakly over to the cavern wall and leaned against it. His fur glistened with sweat. Maybe he shouldn't have stood up.

"I guess... we should use our grappling hooks, huh?"

Razor shot her partner a deeply worried look. T-Bone was usually pretty good at swallowing back the pain. "Let's make this quick. The sooner we get out of here, the better." She waited for him to go first. When he was close to the opening, she fired hers and pressed the button for it to pull her up. T-Bone hung weakly, eye level with the dew covered grass. He took a deep breath and tried to pull himself up. The movement sent a shock wave through his torso. Broken ribs? Check.

"Well shit," he swore. "Now what?"

Razor deftly pulled herself up and onto the grass. "Give me your paw."

"You can't lift me, Razor. I've got at least forty pounds on you."

She smirked. "Well fat weighs less than muscle."

"You just wait. Next time you ask me if something makes your butt look big, I'm gonna... OW!" He shouted as the she-kat started to pull him up.

"Quit yammering and help me!" Razor hissed through gritted teeth.

T-Bone clenched his jaw and forced himself to move through the pain. It wasn't long before he was flat on his back on the grass with Razor panting tiredly beside him. With one arm cradling his ribs, T-Bone reached towards the leg of his flight suit and started to pull the fabric up his rapidly swelling leg.

"You think you can set it?"

Razor scrambled to get a good look at the injury. She winced as she hovered above the battered limb. "T-Bone... this is really bad."

"How bad is 'really bad'?"

She felt a little sick to her stomach. "Can you feel anything?"

"Yes," T-Bone gave her a 'well duh' look.

"In your leg, T-Bone, can you feel anything in your leg?"

T-Bone moved his brain past the throbbing in the rest of his body and his blue eyes widened. "No. I can't."

Razor looked down at the bloody part of his femur jutting out of his thigh. "That's probably a good thing." She felt tears well up in her eyes. There was no way T-Bone was going to be able to get in the jet like this. Her ears fell flat against her helmet. This whole thing was under the radar. The Enforcers had no clue that Dark Kat was hiding out in the mountains. They'd practically stumbled upon him in a routine test flight. Nobody knew they were out here. They needed help.

"I have an idea," she said softly.

* * *

In all the years Callie had been on the 'needing' end of the Swat Kat hotline, she'd never thought she'd be on the 'needed' side. Now, as she stared at her pager buzzing in her paws, her eyes widened in shock, worry and fear. Anxiously, she pressed the button.

"Swat Kats?"

"Callie?" It was Razor's voice. "I... I need your help."

"You need my help? But..."

"It's T-Bone. We tried to get the drop on Dark Kat and something terrible happened." It was evident to the mayor that, by the sound of Razor's voice, she was crying.

"Is he...?" Callie couldn't finish her question.

"He's hurt. Really bad. I can't move him."

Callie looked out her penthouse window. "Where are you?" She was about to abuse her power.

* * *

Razor darted to the Turbokat and dug out the emergency first aid kit. She had to stop the bleeding around the wound. She returned to where T-Bone was laying flat on the grass. Her paws were trembling as she carefully wrapped gauze around his leg, freezing when a large blond paw grasped both of hers.

"I'm going to be okay," T-Bone said reassuringly.

Razor shot him a look. "How can you say that?"

"Because it's just my leg. It's not like I got shot in the head or something."

"It could've been more than your leg. You're lucky that's all you got. That and some cracked ribs. You could've been killed."

"But I'm right here." T-Bone winced and pushed himself up to a sitting position. It hurt to sit up, but he needed to look her in the eyes. "And I'm fine. See?"

"Yeah. You're bone's just sticking out of your leg." Razor said quietly. "No biggie. Just an injury that takes months to heal."

"Hey..." He gently touched her cheek with the back of his paw. "We've been hurt doing this dozens of times. It's just a minor set back."

"A minor set back?" Razor scoffed. "T-Bone... you're not getting it!"

"What am I not getting?" T-Bone gave her a perplexed look. His ear twitched backwards at the sounds of a helicopter. "Please tell me that's not the Enforcers."

Razor shook her head. "I have no idea. Callie said not to worry. She didn't say what she was doing."

As the chopper neared, Razor could make out the large red cross on it and smiled. "Not the Enforcers."

The helicopter landed, it's blades flattening the grass. A familiar blond she-kat ducked out and ran over to the vigilantes, followed closely by two paramedics.

Callie skidded to a halt. "Oh my," she paled beneath her light colored fur. The paramedics urged her out of the way. Razor gave her a torn look. She desperately wanted to go with her husband. But she couldn't leave the Turbokat behind, especially in an area where they'd spotted Dark Kat.

Callie grasped her arm. "You do what you have to do. I'll be with him."

Razor looked between the mayor and her husband. Before they could load him into the helicopter, she ran up to him. "I'll be there before you know it." She tilted her head down and kissed him. "I love you," she whispered.

"Don't crash the Turbokat," T-Bone smirked, drawing a tense laugh from the she-kat.

"Don't let them touch his mask," Razor said to Callie before darting for the jet.

* * *

The house was empty when Jackie unlocked the front door and held it open for Chance. Awkwardly using his crutches, he came up the steps and into the house. His entire leg was in a cast. And his chest was wrapped beneath his shirt. "Melissa must have taken the twins to school." Jackie looked from Chance to the long flight of stairs. "Why don't you go sit on the couch?"

"Are you kidding? I'm exhausted." He hobbled toward the stairs.

Jackie watched him slowly take each step until he was at the top. Then she went into the kitchen to get him something to drink before she forced a paw full of pain killers on him. He wouldn't say anything. But she could see it. He was hurting. As she stood at the sink, her eyes traveled out the window past the brightly colored swing set to the sprawling back yard, past the barn to the woods. She could barely make out the tree house Chance had started building for the boys. She thought about what it would've been like to have to explain to her kittens why daddy wasn't there and the glass she'd been filling with water slipped from her paws, shattering in the sink. She was throwing the broken glass in the trash when the front door open.

"Jackie? Chance? You guys here?" Melissa called from the foyer. Marley, who'd been walking beside her, jerked her paw free and ran through the house.

"MOMMY?!"

"Right here, baby." Jackie caught the toddler, swinging her up until she giggled.

"What's going on? I saw the car. Shouldn't you be at work?" Melissa watched Jackie balance her toddler on her hip and grab another glass.

"Chance had a little accident."

"But his truck's right outside."

"It wasn't in the truck. It..." Jackie sighed. "He broke his leg." She successfully filled it with water and sat it on the counter so that she could open the pill bottle. Marley reached for the little white tablets.

"No,"Jackie hissed, slipping them in her pocket and taking the glass. "Let's go see daddy."

"Daddy." Marley repeated.

"Yep. Daddy." Jackie smiled at the chubby blond kitten as she went up the stairs and down the hall to the master bedroom.

Seeing her father, Marley squirmed wildly, kicking Jackie in her attempts to get free from the arm holding her in place.

"Daddy!" She squealed and launched herself onto the bed.

"Hey pumpkin," Chance grinned as she stumbled over to him, collapsing onto his chest. He clamped down, keeping the gasp of pain from escaping as the kitten curled up beside him. "You gonna take a nap with me?"

She nodded against him. Jackie felt the smile tug at her lips as she handed him the glass and pulled the pills from her pocket. "Is there room for mommy?"

"No!" Marley giggled.

"Well that's just too bad," Jackie dropped onto the bed and dug her fingers lightly into the kitten's sides, tickling her mercilessly.

* * *

Melissa looked at the time. She hadn't heard Marley in hours. It was safe to say she was sound asleep with her parents. She scribbled a note down and stuck it to the fridge. Then she grabbed her keys and went to pick the twins up from school.

Jackie was curled up on her side, her arm across Marley and resting limply on Chance's stomach as it rose and fell steadily in sleep. Her ear twitched at a creaking sound. Then came a shrill mixed scream of "Daddy" and "Mommy" as the door flew open and a rusty colored blur torpedoed towards the bed.

She was up before the two kittens hit them. Chance snorted in his sleep and cracked his eyes open.

"Mommy!" Corey shrieked. "Mommy look!" He held up a piece of paper.

Jackie took the blue construction paper and looked at the brightly colored writing. She smiled. With each letter in a different color, and in almost indecipherable scrawl, it said "Dear Mommy, I love you. Love Corey." Jackie smiled. "This is going on the fridge," she kissed the kitten between the ears and showed the paper to Chance. It took a minute for his drug addled brain to process what he was looking at, but he smiled proudly. "That's my boy." He hugged the kitten.

"Daddy, what happened to your leg?" Jake gingerly touched the cast.

"Daddy had a little accident," Chance shrugged. "So looks like I'm going to be home for a while."

"Does it hurt?"

"A little." Chance scrubbed the kitten's hair. "You have a marker in your book bag?"

Jake still had his bag on his back. He pulled it off and fished around for a little bit, finally pulling up a thick green marker.

"You wanna write your name on it?"

Jake grinned and pulled the top off. He stuck his tongue out of the corner of his mouth as he carefully drew out his name in large letters. "Nice job, sport." Chance smiled and looked at Corey. "You next, kiddo."

Corey took the marker and studied the rough white surface. Slowly, he drew out a crooked 'C' then an almost too large 'o.' With a little bit of hesitation, he got the 'r' out. Finally he was done. "That's awesome," Chance praised his son and then looked at Marley who was grabbing frantically for the marker. "Alright... alright..." he chuckled.

Jackie took the marker and held it in Marley's paw. She guided the kitten in writing her name. Needless to say, it was much more legible than the twins since it had assistance.

"Alright," Jackie slid off the bed and picked up Marley. "You guys are going to go play." Melissa seemed to materialize right outside her bedroom door, waiting to take Marley from her. With the kittens gone and the room quiet again, Jackie slid back into bed and curled up next to Chance.

"You realize you're going to have to be on top for a while." The tabby muttered, his eyes already closed again.

"After everything, you have sex on the brain?"

He smirked. "Every second we have alone." Chance opened his eyes again and turned his head to look at Jackie. The playfulness slipped away from his face. "You know, when that cave started to, you know, cave in, and I pushed you out of the way. There was this split second where all I saw was Corey and Jake and Marley without you."

Jackie felt him reach out for her paw. "You know I was thinking the same thing... except about you."

He squeezed her paw and pulled her, simultaneously scooting to the center of the bed. Jackie sighed and carefully straddled him. A breeze blew in from the window and tousled her hair. The curtains cast shadows on the wall.

Chance had such an intense expression on his face as he stared up at her. It was difficult to believe she'd had three kittens. Then he looked closer at the fine lines forming around her amber eyes beneath her dark fur. Wrinkles brought on by laughter, crying and stress. There was a small, almost undetectable scar on her cheek from the incident with the tiger. That seemed like lifetimes ago. He ran his paws down her arms as he thought about the pictures in crayon, marker, and paint covering their fridge, the random toys in the hallway and in the living room, all of the tears and temper tantrums, the pillow fights and the wrestling matches. Then he thought about the swing set just outside the back door and the tree house he hadn't had time to finish. "I think..." Chance licked his lips. The Oxycodine gave him cotton mouth. "That it's time we made our lives a little more normal."

"Chance, no matter what we do, our lives will never be normal." Jackie felt his paws move from her arms to her waist and then rest on her hips.

"But we can swing things in our favor a little more if we stayed on the ground." He felt her tail tickle his paw.

Jackie cocked her head to the side. "Did I just hear you correctly? Did you just suggest that we...?"

"Yeah... I think it's time." Chance reached up to brush her hair away from her face. He paused and looked at the reddish brown strands wrapped around his claws. The sunlight glinted off a silvery strand.

Jackie blushed. "I... um..." She chuckled. "Callie gave me the name of her stylist. I've got an appointment to get that covered up."

"No. Leave it. I like it." Chance grinned.

"I hate you," Jackie teased. "You're three years older than I am. If anyone should be going gray, it should be you."

"Except I'm not the one busting my tail for Callie, on top of being the one to get Jake and Corey out of bed and ready for school and then getting them in bed. I mean, Melissa does most of the stuff in between, but you're the one who takes off from work to take them to the doctor, even though my job is less demanding and closer to home. And in between all of that, you drop what you're doing to help me rescue this city. I think you're entitled to one gray strand." As if to drive home his point, there was a crash from downstairs and Melissa shouting "Corey!"

Jackie chuckled. "So what are we going to do with all our free time?"

"What free time?" Chance arched an eyebrow. "I have a tree house to finish. And there's that old crop duster that I've barely been able to work on since we moved in. And I'm laid up here until this cast comes off. Tomorrow, Corey's got that appointment with that specialist, therapist... something 'ist' and that's going to put you getting to work at, what? Noon?"

"Yeah. I know," Jackie rolled her eyes. "Are you sure this is what you want to do?"

Chance put his paws back on her hips. "Yeah. I am. You think Callie will be mad?"

"Callie will understand. You really think the Enforcers can handle it?"

"They handled it before the Swat Kats. Besides, you and Callie are the 'dynamic duo' remember? You guys have cut crime in half without having to even put on a mask." His serious expression twisted into a devious smile. "Besides, that gives me more time with this beautiful body before the rest of it gets covered in gray."

_**The End**_

_**Alright. That's done. Complete. Fin. Hope you all enjoyed it.**_

_**Nyte Kat**_


End file.
